A woman in her 70s from Darlington found 18 gender options on a patient form, which included “two-spirit” used by indigenous communities

Тhe extensive list is a way of offering “respect and humility” by allowing patients to identify who they are.

The form features the traditional male and female choices, but also offers a huge range of other options.

These include passing, two-spirit, third gender, transgender, agender, bigender, cisgender, gender expression, gender fluid, gender queer and gender variant.

The paperwork also included "other" as an option for anyone who was not covered by the list.

There is also a “prefer not to say” box to tick for patients who would rather not answer.

Third gender is when people are categorised as neither a man nor a woman, either by themselves or society, while agender is someone who claims not to have a gender at all.

Bigender is described as a person who experiences two genders, while gender fluid refers to someone who moves between different gender expressions.

Two-spirit is used by indigenous communities and reflects a unique understanding of gender roles.

It comes after the NHS suffered backlash for removing the word 'woman' from cancer and pregnancy web pages.

https://www.gbnews.com/health/nhs-gender-patient-form-darlington-woman