Inactivation of Sex-specific/ Sex-qualified Procedure concepts

Briefing Note Purpose

The evolution of medical understanding and societal awareness regarding sex identity necessitates a review of how procedures are named and classified. This Briefing Note advocates for the inactivation of procedure concepts that explicitly include Sex (e.g., “male prostatectomy,” “female mastectomy”) in favor of anatomically-focused procedure names.

The proposed solution is the inactivation of procedure concepts that specify male/female in descriptions.

Date created 1 October 2025
Action Review the content
Provide your feedback
Circulate as necessary
Status Open
Disposition Awaiting feedback
Feedback by 1 November 2025

Note: The deadline for feedback on this briefing note is paused and this topic is now closed while the document is under further review. A new briefing note topic will be posted once that review is completed.

I have started to look through the information in the Briefing Note.

I am unable to access the information in the link to content tracker ‘IHTSDO-1122’ - page states ‘Currently Under Maintenance’.

I am unable to access the information in the link to ‘GC-1393’ - page states ‘Currently Under Maintenance’.

It would be helpful for SNOMED International to provide further information on the evidence and considerations that informed the Briefing Note, including context for the statement, “This need has been recorded in various requests and discussions.”

Has this topic been discussed in SI Advisory Groups and/or SI Clinical Reference Groups? Has SI had input from Subject Matter Experts / Stakeholder Groups?

Paul Wright

UK Member Forum Representative

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Hi Paul,

Just a quick response, for the missing links, the correct URLs are:

Thanks,

Rory

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Link has been fixed in the Briefing Note

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Following up the discussion from the Content Managers Advisory Group at October business meetings , here is the link to the full list of Related concepts, Body structures not included. Be aware that some concepts in the list are gender/sex/genitalia/etc… related, either in descriptions or modeling.

Gender specific All Minus Body structures.docx (87.0 KB)

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The deadline for feedback on this briefing note is paused for the moment while the SNOMED International team reviews current input.

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