The health service is considering reversing reverse guidance on terms like 'chestfeeding' to plans to give hospitals clear language based on biological sex.

Terms like 'chestfeeding' and referring to 'people with ovaries' instead of 'women' could change under the new plans. 

The Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, will announce the proposed changes to the NHS Constitution this week, the Telegraph reported. 

A new version of the Constitution has been drafted to ensure women-only spaces are protected. 

Under the proposals, trans women may not be treated on single-sex female wards.

This is a shift from previous NHS guidance that allowed trans patients to be put on single sex wards in relation to the gender they identify with.

The proposals would also give patients more powers to request a doctor of the same biological sex as them in matters of 'intimate care', while trans patients would have their own private spaces where hospitals can provide them.

Under the new NHS Constitution, the importance of 'sex specific' language could be emphasised.

This comes after mentions of women were removed from health pages on cervical and ovarian cancers in order to be more 'inclusive' in 2022.

MailOnline previously reported how past NHS information on ovarian cancer once read: 'Ovarian cancer, or cancer of the ovaries, is one of the most common types of cancer in women.'

It also said: 'Ovarian cancer mainly affects women who have been through the menopause (usually over the age of 50), but it can sometimes affect younger women.'

However in 2022 both lines were removed and another line was added: 'Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.'

It now currently reads: 'Ovarian cancer affects the ovaries. It mostly affects women over the age of 50.

'It can affect anyone who has ovaries.' 

Ex-Health Secretary Steve Barclay had announced plans for the changes at the Tory Party's conference last year. 

He said: 'If we do not get this right now, the long-term consequences could be very serious for the protection of women and future generations.'

The proposals come after The Daily Mail exposed 'shocking' NHS rules that mean patients who only occasionally identify as women can share female-only wards.

This is regardless of whether or not they have had surgery or legally changed sex.

The constitution is updated every ten years, most recently in 2015. 

The new text will face an eight-week consultation.

A Government source said: 'The Government has been clear that biological sex matters, and women and girls are entitled to receive the protection and privacy they need in all healthcare settings.

'Our proposed updates will give patients the right to request same-sex intimate care and accommodation to protect their safety, privacy and dignity.'

Maya Forstater, chief executive of the campaign group Sex Matters, told the Telegraph: 'These much-needed changes to the NHS constitution will help secure essential sex-based rights in healthcare across England.

'Clear language, single-sex wards and access to intimate care provided by a health professional of the same sex are crucial to the wellbeing and safety of female patients.'

In 2021, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust unveiled new 'gender inclusive' phrases in a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia'.

Other changes included replacing the use of the word 'woman' with the phrase 'woman or person', and the term 'father' with 'parent', 'co-parent' or 'second biological parent', depending on the circumstances. 

MailOnline has contacted the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care for comment.