NHS advice website drops ‘women’

THE NHS has dropped the word ‘women’ from its main online health advice for those being treated for cervical, womb and ovarian cancers.

Ovarian cancer is now described on the health service’s website as affecting ‘the two organs that store the eggs needed to make babies’. It previously said: ‘Ovarian cancer, or cancer of the ovaries, is one of the most common types of cancer in women.’

To see the word ‘women’ being used to talk about female illness, patients have to click further into the website.

England’s NHS website, which is often the first port of call for people checking symptoms, used to say: ‘Cancer of the womb (uterine or endometrial cancer) is a common cancer that affects the female reproductive system.

‘It’s more common in women who have been through the menopause.’

It now says: ‘Most womb cancer usually starts in the lining of the womb, this is also known as endometrial cancer.’

The move has come under fire, according to The Times, from researchers into birth and childcare who worry that those with poor language skills – who already have ‘worse health outcomes’ – could find it difficult to understand the website.

dr Karleen Gribble of Western Sydney University said ‘desexed language’ is ‘well intentioned’ but could put health at ‘risk’, adding: ‘The very first thing needs to be who does this apply to – who needs to listen to the rest of this? Then you can give them information.’

A spokesman for NHS digital said it had updated the web pages ‘to keep them in line with the best clinical evidence and make them as helpful as possible to everyone who needs them’.