NHS staff have demanded the health body brings back the word “woman” on its web pages about cancer and pregnancy. Over 1,000 staff have called for the “disrespectful” censorship of the word to end in an open letter to NHS chiefs. At least 19 female health pages on the NHS.uk website no longer use the word. These pages consist of guidance pages about female-only issues, including ovarian cancer and menopause.

Rather than using the word “woman”, the NHS uses phrases like “anyone with a cervix”, according to the staff.

The letter, seen by Express.co.uk, said: “We call for the reinstatement of sex-based, respectful communication that meets the healthcare needs of women.

“Specifically, the NHS must use women’s words for women’s bodies and women’s health problems.

“NHS.UK healthcare messaging shows a lack of concern for women, is disrespectful and insults women.”

The staff argue the censorship of the word woman is “considered misogynistic” and “undermines trust in the NHS”.

The letter, which was signed by 1,200 clinicians, added: “Language such as ‘people with a vagina’ is dehumanising and reduces women and girls to body parts, such as genitalia.”

The letter’s signatories include ex-NHS bosses, such as Maura Buchanan, former president of the Royal College of Nursing.

One signatory wrote: “I’m signing as a relatively young woman, who was diagnosed with reproductive cancer. I found it insulting and alienating to find myself being referred to by my body parts, and bodily functions and as ‘a person undergoing a specific (invasive, deeply unpleasant and painful) medical procedure/s’. This undermined my faith and trust in the NHS, at a time when patient trust is of utmost importance.”

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Staff are also complaining the changes were made without consulting the relevant people. 

The letter claimed the changes were done without public consultation, and without consideration of how women feel.

The Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender said the changes “occurred by stealth” over the past few years in all four nations of the UK.

NHS Guidance on miscarriages has replaced the words “most women” with “most people”, for example. It used to read “for most women, a miscarriage is a one-off event and they go on to have a successful pregnancy in future”.

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