Making the word “women” less prominent in NHS health advice risks harming patients, an expert has warned.

The main NHS web pages on ovarian, womb and cervical cancers no longer refer to women. They have instead been “desexed”, using gender-neutral language that includes people who have female body parts but do not identify as women, such as transgender men.

England’s NHS website used to introduce ovarian cancer as “one of the most common types of cancer in women”. Now it says: “Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.”

Campaigners said they worried that less literate people, including those without English as a first language, may not realise the health messages applied to them.

Dr Karleen Gribble of Western Sydney University, lead author of a recent review on the importance of sexed language in birth and childcare, said: “I think that the changes to desex language are well intentioned, but we are seeing that they are making communications less clear and when it comes to critical health issues that has great potential to place the health and wellbeing of individuals at risk.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bdfde88a-e5b6-11ec-aa87-2eea7c6e5b01