‘Lazy uterus’ and ‘geriatric mother’: The women trying to stop doctors using ‘outdated’ terminology

“The term ‘vanishing twin’ makes my blood run cold,” says Sam, on Peanut, the networking app for women, in a post about the phrase used when she miscarried one of her twins. “It made me feel like the other baby never existed and it wasn’t okay to mourn them”.

In another heartfelt post on Peanut, a woman said on video that she felt “inadequate and guilty and lacking as a woman” after being told by her doctor that at age 35 she was considered a “geriatric mum”. The woman explains that mental health needs to be more of a consideration in the medical community. “It’s unfortunate that the term ‘geriatric mum’ doesn’t take in to account a woman’s mental health as well as her physical health. I deserve to feel hopeful and empowered, and instead, I just feel so shi**ty right now.”

The number of women having babies in their 40s has more than doubled in 10 years and over-35s now have the fastest-growing birthrates, according to an article published in the US National Libary of Medicine. More women will be experiencing this negative terminology as a result.

In a bid to banish outdated and harmful terms from medical vocabularies, the Peanut platform has launched the “Renaming Revolution”.

Terms like “inhospitable womb”, “geriatric pregnancy”, “spontaneous abortion” or “advanced maternal age” are “outdated”, agree the platform's panellists, made up of doctors, language scholars and other experts. “The goal with medical terminology should be to educate women and to shift away from blame or hurtful labels,” says Dr Somi Javaid.

The app asked its community to share other hurtful terms users had encountered during the process of fertility and motherhood. More than 200,000 people responded. American model and television personality Chrissy Teigen even backed the debate: “This poor woman,” she tweeted after viewing the “geriatric” video. "Why are terms like 'geriatric mom' still being used in 2021? There is so much language that is not only offensive, but undermines women!"

Part of the Renaming Revolution is a new glossary of modernised terms, filled with alternatives to phrases that Peanut thinks are archaic, “that serve the same purpose while empowering women rather than shaming them,” explains Javaid.

More than 60 “hurtful” terms and phrases have been published in the glossary including “baron”, “biological clock” and “natural birth”. The glossary is available online and is being distributed to clinics, classes and more.

According to the World Health Organisation, worldwide around 10 per cent of pregnant women and 13 per cent of women post-pregnancy experience a mental disorder, most commonly depression. Words can be the first step in tackling the difficulties around fertility and childbirth, and shouldn’t be underestimated, explains Michelle Kennedy, founder and CEO of Peanut.

“Words matter. Changing the harmful discourse and verbiage that's become so normalised as a way to describe women's bodies is long overdue,” says Kennedy. “Peanut’s glossary is the first step in transforming some of the negatively charged terms that are too often used during the most sensitive and vulnerable times in women’s lives.”

While some doctors have already swapped out terms like “geriatric pregnancy” for more sensitive terms like “advanced maternal age,” there’s a long way to go to educate the wider community on its language use, says Kennedy. “With the launch of this glossary, our hope is to take that mission even further and create even more safe spaces for women to connect using language that reflects their experiences without shaming or dehumanising them.”