In Cliniko, we provide a number of options on how a patient’s sex and gender identity can be recorded:
In this guide we'll cover:
Updating Sex field
Sex refers to biological/physiological characteristics and gender is a social/cultural concept. Sex and gender are often used interchangeably (but the distinction is important).
To record a patient's Sex, you'll need to edit the patient's details by using the Edit button:
It will now say Editing patient details at the top of the screen:
Scroll down until you see the Sex field (located below Date of birth). The Sex field allows for any specific text to be entered, but we have added some common options for convenience.
The options are: Female, Male, AFAB, and AMAB (which is an acronym for assigned female/male at birth).
Once you've updated the patient's Sex field, from here, you also have the option to update their gender identity field and/or set their pronouns. Make sure to save your changes by selecting Save patient at the top or bottom of the page:
Now you're all set 🎉!
Including Intersex
The Intersex Human Rights Australia (ihra) recommends that "questions on intersex should be separated from questions about sex or gender. Separating intersex from a question on sex and/or gender will avoid misgendering or mis-classifying people with intersex variation".
If you need to have this information, one option is to add a question to your custom patient fields or secure patient intake forms. For example:
"Were you born with a variation of sex characteristics (this is sometimes called intersex or differences of sex development)?"
Or
"Intersex is a term for people born with atypical physical sex characteristics. There are many different intersex traits or variations. Do you have an intersex variation?"
Just note: It may be appropriate to include the responses “Don’t know” or “Prefer not to say”.
Updating Gender identity field
Gender identity is a person’s sense of their gender. It is not necessarily related to sex, physical characteristics, appearance, behavior, or sexual orientation.
Asking someone about their gender identity is a very personal question and is rarely required. We expect a large portion of Cliniko users will not need this, however for those that do, it’s very important.
To record a patient's Gender identity, you'll need to edit the patient's details by using the Edit button:
It will now say Editing patient details at the top of the screen:
Scroll down until you see the Gender identity field (located below Sex):
Similar to the Sex field, the Gender identity field allows for specific text to be entered, but we have some common options to make things easier.
For Gender identity, the options are: Agender, Androgyne, Gender fluid, Man, Nonbinary, Transgender, and Woman:
Once you've updated the patient's Gender identity field, from here, you also have the option to update their Sex field and/or set their pronouns if you haven't already. Make sure to save your changes by selecting Save patient at the top or bottom of the page:
Deprecated Gender field
Prior to December 2018, we had a field named “Gender” in Cliniko, but we treated it as Sex. The options were Male, Female and Not applicable.
We’ve decided to deprecate this field and introduce new fields in its place. We no longer allow changes to the old Gender field, however, it will continue to be displayed for patients until the new Sex field is set.
Additional Resources
If you’re looking for more information about sex, gender, and gender identity, we recommend checking out the following resources:
If you have any questions regarding sex and gender identity fields, please reach out to the support team 💬.