My ‘female’ smear test nurse had deep voice and stubble

A WOMAN who asked for a female to perform her NHS smear test found herself confronted by a transgender nurse with stubble and a deep voice.

The nurse told her: “My gender is not male. I’m a transsexual,” it was revealed yesterday.

She refused the intimate procedure, meant to detect cancerous changes to the neck of the womb, because she said she felt “embarrassed and distressed”.

The woman later received an official apology after she complained about her treatment in September 2016 at a clinic run by the Central and North West London NHS Trust.

The patient, who requested anonymity for herself and the clinic, had requested a female practitioner.

She said it was “weird where somebody says to you ‘My gender is not male’ and you think, ‘Well, what does that even mean? You are clearly a man’.”

The nurse “had an obviously male appearance – close-cropped hair, a male facial appearance and voice, large number of tattoos and facial stubble”.

She described the experience as “bad enough for a 40-something mother” but would have seriously upset her 17-year-old daughter. In her letter of complaint she said: “People who are not comfortable about this are presented as bigots and this is kind of how I was made to feel about it.”

She emphasised her complaint was not about the nurse’s appearance or gender status.

It is understood the nurse self-identified as a woman but had not been employed on that basis and saw the patient because of a clerical error.

The Trust said: “We apologised for the recording error and because the staff member accepted they didn’t manage the situation appropriately.

“The patient needed to feel listened to.”

“Trust policy is to consider seriously all requests for clinicians of a particular gender.”

Justine Greening, the Equalities Minister, is said to be rethinking planned changes to the Gender Recognition Act that would allow people to change their gender legally without a medical diagnosis.

James Caspian, a psychotherapist, said: “Politicians have not thought through all the implications.”