Iris Y. Lo, BA, JAMA Network
The AMA Manual of Style will soon offer guidance on inclusive language when referring to people who are pregnant or people with the capacity for pregnancy.
This wording has more general use and can include individuals who were assigned female at birth, transgender men, nonbinary individuals, gender-nonconforming individuals, and gender-fluid individuals–basically anyone who is physically able to become pregnant.
This language should be used when study investigators have not explicitly asked participants to self-identify their gender. In studies in which participants have all identified as women, it is appropriate to use terms like pregnant women.
However, if study participants have not completley self-reported their gender as women, terms such as pregnant participants, pregnant individuals, and pregnant patients are more accurate. In these cases, birthing parent rather than mother is a more accurate term and should be used for the same reasons.
The JAMA Network has internally started to follow this guidance, joining many other scientific journals, such as Nature, and medical associations and societies, such as the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. The US Preventive Services Task Force also uses this type of language.
We do not need an – all or nothing – approach to this issue. Many of those within the gender diverse community choose to describe themselves with binary terminology and fight to use these terms. This issue must allow for all individuals to use the words that they feel best describe their experience. So, the way forward is to include more words, not to use less. Inclusive language should be just that – inclusive of more words. For example, not all those who feed their infant human milk identify as female but some do – so we can use the words breastfeeding or chestfeeding.
Thanks for this! Will this guidance extend to other conditions, like prostate cancer?