From the 'chestfeeding' drama to the historic Cass review which crippled trans ... trends now
After multiple scandals, repeated warnings from experts, and a revolving door of health secretaries, the NHS will finally be made to stop the 'eradication' of the term women and the use of 'artificial language'.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has today announced proposed changes to the NHS Constitution, a document enshrining what the health service is dedicated to achieve, in the matter of recognising the importance of biological sex.
Discussing the changes Ms Atkins said language the NHS uses should 'be clear and make sense to people', and not 'eradicate women'.
She told Times Radio: 'There will be listeners who are worried about the fact that they see articles in the paper about "chestfeeding" and language such as that.'
The change in attitude is also being matched with proposals to ensure trans patients only use single-sex wards and that patients have the right to request intimate care from a medic of their own sex.
Here, MailOnline explains how we got here amid years of scandal and multiple promises.
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins (pictured) said that 'if a patient wants same-sex care they should have access to it wherever reasonably possible'
Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed NHS communications. Some of these examples have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals
While examples of individual NHS trusts erasing or avoiding terms like women from local advice had previously come to light, in 2022 it became a national issue.
MailOnline revealed NHS Digital had quietly scrubbed all mention of women from its landing pages for ovarian, womb and cervical cancer.
The previous version of the ovarian NHS cancer page featured the line: 'Ovarian cancer, or cancer of the ovaries, is one of the most common types of cancer in women.'
This had been replaced by 'Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.'
Then, just a few weeks later this website revealed 'women' and 'woman' had also been omitted from official advice about the menopause, which is unique to biological females.
The webpage previously described the condition as 'when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally'.
But the new, gender-neutral description stated: 'Menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels'.
In total six mentions of 'women' and 'woman' have been scrubbed from the page.
Justifying the change, NHS Digital said at the time they wanted language to be 'inclusive and respectful'.
The move was condemned by then Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who said 'common sense and the right language' should be used to 'give people the best possible care'.
In 2022 then Sajid Javid promised to reverse gender neutral language in NHS advice after MailOnline revealed the term 'women' had been quietly erased from menopause advice
Dr Cass's (pictured) report concluded this week that trans children were set on the path to irreversible change despite 'remarkably weak evidence' to support medical treatment
Health experts criticised the degendering change in language warning
