Questions about sex assigned at birth have the potential to harm patients when they are used as a proxy for the more specific questions about anatomy and hormonal levels required to determine someone’s health needs, say @ash_alpert and colleagues https://t.co/hGi7YW8v2c
In other words, instead of boxes on a form “F” / “M”, there should be a question: ‘List a number of different body parts that you have. Examples: Penis, ears, breasts, vulva, feet, testes, anus, heart, spleen, uterus…”
J.A.
As if sex isn’t an important factor for many diseases that affect parts of the body that males and females have in common, like arthritis (affects women more) and heart disease (affects men more).
What a Maroon
“What is your testosterone/estradiol ratio?”
I mean, surely everyone knows that.
Roj Blake
Listed as one of three author affiliations:
Transgender Cancer Patient Project, Martinez, CA, USA
Bias much?
Skeletor
This seems reasonable to me. It says the questions are harmful if used as a proxy for hormone levels if knowing the hormone levels is important when determining a treatment. It doesn’t say they’re always harmful.
(Although what kind of quack would not check actual hormone levels?)
GW
“What is your testosterone/estradiol ratio?”
Is it constant throughout life, or is it something that I need to check each morning? (I have no idea.)
It says “sex assigned at birth.” No, that’s not “reasonable.”
GW
There are presumably people alive today that were assigned a sex shortly after birth. When was this practice being done to people with intersex conditions? 1960s? Though I don’t know how widespread it was.
iknklast
GW, that is extremely rare, somewhere in the range of 0.02% and 0.05%. That is not enough to make that question reasonable.
iknklast
Ophelia, I made a comment that isn’t showing. I might have hit the wrong email again, because for some reason clearing cookies did not make the other ones go away. Thanks.
What a Maroon
Is it constant throughout life, or is it something that I need to check each morning? (I have no idea.)
I have no idea either, which is the point. Everyone over the age of three knows their sex, but you can’t expect everyone to know all the concomitant medical implications. Hell, I only learned about “testosterone/estradiol ratio” yesterday thanks to Dr. Google. I have to trust my doctor to know what’s normal, and whether an abnormal reading would indicate a problem (or if it’s even something worth measuring).
Sex, like age, is an important data point for doctors. Gender or gender identification or whatever, not so much.
iknklast, it’s not showing on the dashboard either, so I’m afraid it’s just lost.
iknklast
It showed up, mysteriously. Guess it was just a glitch. I’m having a lot of those right now. I can’t access the classes I’m supposed to be teaching, which makes it hard to teach them.
Michael Haubrich
I don’t have a subscription, and not really interested in paying the $37 to read the article, but the Rapid Responses are open with no paywall.
Healthcare cannot collectively discard words for the two biological sexes. Awareness of the importance of clinical research into sex differences in medicine, especially for the female sex[9], has just been highlighted by the pandemic. How would such work be done if the sexes cannot be named?
Clear language on sex is vital in medicine, science, and public health education.
Comments
14 responses to “Used as a proxy”
In other words, instead of boxes on a form “F” / “M”, there should be a question: ‘List a number of different body parts that you have. Examples: Penis, ears, breasts, vulva, feet, testes, anus, heart, spleen, uterus…”
As if sex isn’t an important factor for many diseases that affect parts of the body that males and females have in common, like arthritis (affects women more) and heart disease (affects men more).
“What is your testosterone/estradiol ratio?”
I mean, surely everyone knows that.
Listed as one of three author affiliations:
Transgender Cancer Patient Project, Martinez, CA, USA
Bias much?
This seems reasonable to me. It says the questions are harmful if used as a proxy for hormone levels if knowing the hormone levels is important when determining a treatment. It doesn’t say they’re always harmful.
(Although what kind of quack would not check actual hormone levels?)
Is it constant throughout life, or is it something that I need to check each morning? (I have no idea.)
It says “sex assigned at birth.” No, that’s not “reasonable.”
There are presumably people alive today that were assigned a sex shortly after birth. When was this practice being done to people with intersex conditions? 1960s? Though I don’t know how widespread it was.
GW, that is extremely rare, somewhere in the range of 0.02% and 0.05%. That is not enough to make that question reasonable.
Ophelia, I made a comment that isn’t showing. I might have hit the wrong email again, because for some reason clearing cookies did not make the other ones go away. Thanks.
I have no idea either, which is the point. Everyone over the age of three knows their sex, but you can’t expect everyone to know all the concomitant medical implications. Hell, I only learned about “testosterone/estradiol ratio” yesterday thanks to Dr. Google. I have to trust my doctor to know what’s normal, and whether an abnormal reading would indicate a problem (or if it’s even something worth measuring).
Sex, like age, is an important data point for doctors. Gender or gender identification or whatever, not so much.
iknklast, it’s not showing on the dashboard either, so I’m afraid it’s just lost.
It showed up, mysteriously. Guess it was just a glitch. I’m having a lot of those right now. I can’t access the classes I’m supposed to be teaching, which makes it hard to teach them.
I don’t have a subscription, and not really interested in paying the $37 to read the article, but the Rapid Responses are open with no paywall.
https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1261/rapid-responses