Leading British medical journal The Lancet describes women as “bodies with vaginas” on its latest cover — sparking swift backlash and an apology from the weekly’s top editor.

The publication — among the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals — was accused of sexism for the cover, which refers to an article titled “Periods on Display", the Telegraph reported.

In a review of an exhibit about the history of menstruation at the Vagina Museum in London, the author writes “women” four times, but also uses the phrase “bodies with vaginas” once, according to the news outlet.

The Lancet mentions the phrase on the cover.

“Historically, the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected,” the journal says on the front page, which sparked a backlash and condemnations by some academics.

“Trans people regularly face stigma, discrimination, exclusion, and poor health, often experiencing difficulties accessing appropriate health care. The exhibition review from which The Lancet cover quote was taken is a compelling call to empower women, together with non-binary, trans, and intersex people who have experienced menstruation, and to address the myths and taboos that surround menstruation.”

A study on MonkeyPox in women was published in The Lancet recently in which almost half of the cohort being studied were males who identify as women.

In the study published in the world-class medical journal on November 17, researchers analyzed data for a total of 136 individuals with the MonkeyPox virus infection across 15 countries. There were 62 “trans women,” 69 “cis” women, and 5 non-binary individuals who were grouped with the “cis” women to form a category of “people assigned female at birth.”

Around 90% of the cases reported sex with men, and 27% were living with HIV, with 50% of the males who identify as women also being HIV+ compared to just 8% of the actual women. 

The study concluded that the “clinical features of monkeypox in women and non-binary individuals were similar to those described in men,” and that anatomically, “anogenital lesions were reflective of sexual practices: vulvovaginal lesions predominated in cis women and non-binary individuals and anorectal features predominated in trans women.”

Maya Forstater took to Twitter to point out that it was hardly surprising that the findings showed women having similar clinical features as males when almost half the “women” studied were male.

Others suggested that publishing such a study would undermine the public’s trust in the medical world.