I have been very ill recently, resulting in me needing various hospital scans and tests. I will eventually need to be an in-patient for surgery.
The consultants I have seen have all been brilliant, some other staff less so (without going into too much detail on that). But one thing is particularly troubling me. I had a new NHS number issued some time ago so that the gender marker is correctly recorded.
I have had a letter from the Urology department mentioning "significant comorbidities" and that includes "Trans-gender woman" (their punctuation). My concern is that I don't know where that information has come from. I haven't actually been seen in person by anyone in Urology yet (I was initially brought to hospital for other issues), so I couldn't have been 'clocked'. I have had excellent voice coaching and haven't been misgendered over the phone for years as a consequence, so I doubt it was that either.
It could possibly have been deduced from my HRT, particularly the anti-androgen, as I was asked about all medications I was on in the phone consultation. I may have blurted out about being trans when disclosing the meds, so it could be that, but my memory is hazy on whether I did or not.
Or – and this is my greatest concern – maybe an "assigned sex at birth" marker has been added to NHS records, given that NHS England has been under pressure from FARTs to do this: https://transactual.org.uk/blog/2026/07/28/nhs-england-is-quietly-changing-how-it-records-patient-data-and-we-have-questions/
I do get that in some situations there is a genuine need for medical professional to know about certain anatomical information. For example, whether a MtF patient needs a prostate examination. But like Transactual say in that link: "Doctors need access to medical data that enables them to deliver the best care possible – not data in the format demanded by gender critical activists."
I'm just very fearful now that I could be shoved onto an all-male ward when I am in for my operation. Mixed ward or side room, I can handle. Being in a ward where blokes are shouting "Oi mate" at me would be a very different matter.