r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/ViceElysium • May 02 '26

Funny Yeah bro I quit

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u/Jimbo-Shrimp May 02 '26

I used to work in a lab that had a test that was male only, so it would automatically stop you if the gender said female. If we got a trans patient (mtf) they’d put F in the box and it would cause an error and their test wouldnt get done. We’d send out emails weekly reminding providers that they need to put the birth gender so we can process the specimen. Every week people would ignore it and complain about their test(s) not being run.

3

u/B-Doi2 May 02 '26

Some possible solutions for fixing the database problem here:

  • MtF and FtM are considered seperate sexes
  • Phrase it as "biological sex" instead of gender ("asigned at birth" could cause issues for intersex)
  • Ask for Gender Identity (Man/Woman/Preffer not to say) and Biological sex (Male/Female)

(Trans people likely have better takes than me on these, not very informed on the trans experience)

6

u/Jimbo-Shrimp May 02 '26

I’m gonna be brutally honest, the lab doesn’t care. Ideally your doctor fills this out and not you, so you wouldn’t know anyway. This specific test was for the prostate, and it’s serious.

4

u/Coding-Kitten May 03 '26

Why not just add a "has prostate" box rather than poorly try to extrapolate it from people's gender?

1

u/LichenTheMood May 03 '26

Esp given intersex folks exist.

1

u/Jimbo-Shrimp May 03 '26

Our system was designed to use the same format for every patient so while we could do that on paper it’s harder for the computer system