A male Labour MP has said the NHS should stop using “gendered vocabulary” when treating pregnant women.
Speaking during a debate on International Men’s Day, Alex Sobel, the MP for Leeds Central and Headingly, said failing to ask a transgender man if there was a possibility they could be pregnant before hospital treatment could result in “serious consequences”.
Trans men, who were born female but identify as male, do not always undergo gender reassignment surgery, meaning that in some circumstances they could still become pregnant.
The Telegraph has the story:
Mr Sobel, 49, told the Commons: “Across the NHS there needs to be a greater awareness of trans men and trans masculine people who have given birth.
“For example [if] a trans man is not asked whether he could [be] pregnant before receiving a dose of radiation, there could be serious consequences.
“We can begin by removing gendered vocabulary from pregnancy care and parenthood.”
He also warned that trans men “face a number of barriers in accessing equal quality healthcare on the NHS”, including long waiting lists for breast removal surgery.
“This leaves a situation where trans men and trans masculine individuals are forced to pay for private care, which not everyone can do, as we know,” he said.
“Or to put up with dysphoria and other associated mental health impacts, for which there is a lack of sector-wide support and training.
“Top surgery drastically improves well-being and saves lives.”
Mr Sobel referenced the case of journalist Freddy McConnell, a trans man who gave birth to his son but was “unable to be listed as his child’s father”.
He said: “The High Court ruled that even though he was considered [a] man by law and had a gender recognition certificate to prove it, he could not appear on his child’s birth certificate as father or even parent.
“The same problems occur in access to cervical cancer treatment, currently a trans man or non-binary person with a male sex mark on their NHS record will not be included in the recall system.
“In this area the law is all over the place, there needs to be more input from trans people themselves.”
First elected in 2017, Mr Sobel served as the shadow minister for nature recovery and the domestic environment from 2021 to 2023, and has expressed support for Extinction Rebellion.
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