Beyond “Women’s” Health: A Natural Language Processing Analysis of Trends in Gender-Neutral Language Use

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine trends in gendered language use in abstracts pertaining to obstetrics and gynaecology and use of language specific to the transgender population. Of 4.8 million MEDLINE records, 955 626 abstracts met inclusion criteria and were classified using a natural language processing analysis. A total of 59% contained gendered language, 0.03% transgender, and 40.6% gender-neutral. The proportion of obstetrics and gynecology abstracts containing gender-neutral and transgender language has rapidly increased. This shift may represent a response to journal policies on language, and the growing recognition of the applicability of "women's" health to a broader population than cis-gendered women.