UK Cancer trust defends calling vagina ‘bonus hole’
Medical charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has defended suggesting health professionals use the terms ‘bonus hole’ and ‘front hole’ in place of ‘vagina’ to accommodate trans men and non-binary patients for cervical screenings, telling the Daily Mail on Saturday that the guidance on its website is not meant for all patients.
The trust explained the language wasn’t directed at “all women,” but that it was taken from a guide for health professionals looking to encourage trans-men and non-binary female-bodied individuals to come in for cervical cancer screenings.
“It is a list of phrases that nurses may hear some patients prefer,” a spokesperson clarified, noting the glossary had been “developed with expert organizations who work with the LGBT community.”
While admitting that “women are our main audience” at the cervical cancer trust, the spokesperson stressed that Jo’s mission was to screen as many cervixes as possible, no matter whose.
The controversial advice, which has incensed women’s groups, appears on Jo’s website in a glossary titled “Language to use when supporting trans men and/or non-binary people,” partially credited to the LGBT Foundation. ‘Bonus hole’ is defined as “an alternative word for the vagina,” with the qualification, “it is important to check which words someone would prefer to use.”
Accusing Jo’s of “grooming” by seeking to “encourage body dissociation and hatred” among young people, Conservatives for Women founder Caroline Fiske told the Mail Online “these charities promoting harm” should be “struck off” if a legal mechanism is available.
Standing for Women founder Kellie-Jay Keen denounced the glossary as “loathsome” and “so misogynist.” “You would think that charities focused on cervical cancer would have better things to do than erase female language,” she said.
Jo’s website also includes a page designed to help potential patients determine if they have a cervix and why (or why not). Explaining “women are usually born with a cervix,” the site explains that trans men, non-binary people “assigned female at birth,” and even men with a “difference in sex development” might also share the anatomy. Intersex women and those who have undergone a hysterectomy or gender confirmation surgery might not, the charity advises, urging the uncertain to verify with their doctor.
While it is not clear why ‘bonus hole’ went viral last week – the guidance was reportedly posted to Jo’s website in 2020 and is up for review in September – the controversy around transgender medical procedures has reached a fever pitch as the UK and several European countries reversed course on hormone treatment for children.
London’s famed Tavistock gender clinic closed its doors last year after it was accused of rushing impressionable and confused teens into “life-altering treatment on hormone-blocking drugs,” with referrals having surged from 250 in 2011 to 5,000 in 2020.
