In this alarming episode, Carrie Clark, Director of Genspect UK, joins Stella O'Malley and Mia Hughes to expose the troubling details of the UK's proposed "Pathways" study on puberty blockers. Despite the Cass Review uncovering major failings at the now-closed Tavistock clinic, the NHS is planning a new trial that threatens to repeat the same devastating mistakes with potentially thousands of children.
About Carrie Clark
Carrie Clark, Genspect UK Director Carrie Clark is a writer and researcher from the UK. Her work focuses on freedom of speech, viewpoint diversity, and classical liberalism as natural antidotes to the capture of institutions by dogmatic ideologies. She sits on the Genspect advisory board and is a member of the Killarney Group think tank.
Her research has been covered by The Times, Telegraph, and Daily Mail, and her articles are available on Spiked and Dr. Colin Wright's Substack, Reality's Last Stand. After discovering alarming details about the planned NHS study on puberty blockers, Clark has been leading efforts to raise awareness about its scientific and ethical problems.
The Pathways Study: A Return to Medical Experimentation
The controversial NHS study has received over £10 million in funding and consists of four strands:
A puberty blocker trial with potentially thousands of participants
"Horizon" - attempting to create a control group of non-medicated patients
"Connect" - examining cognitive development in children on puberty blockers
"Voices" - consulting gender-distressed patients about what treatments they want
Carrie explains the minimal inclusion criteria known so far:
"The only inclusion criteria that have so far been made public are that the child must want puberty blockers, the child's parent must agree with them having puberty blockers, and that the gender dysphoria clinics say that the child should have puberty blockers. That's all we have at the moment."
This raises serious concerns about what Clark calls "post-Cass complacency"—the dangerous assumption that ethical review boards will prevent harm despite their past failures.
The Medical Evidence They're Ignoring
The episode explores how this new trial ignores extensive evidence showing poor outcomes from puberty blockers:
The Dutch Protocol: Methodologically Flawed
Mia Hughes details the profound problems with the "gold standard" Dutch studies:
"For the puberty blockers study, they only selected those who went on to cross sex hormones, which means all of the people for whom puberty blockers did not work out... they're not included in the puberty blockers study."
The researchers also manipulated outcome measures by switching which gender dysphoria assessment scale they used before and after treatment, creating an artificial appearance of improvement.
The Early Intervention Study (EIS)
This UK study at Tavistock found that for three-quarters of participants on puberty blockers, mental health either didn't improve or actually worsened. Despite this, researchers buried these results and continued prescribing, only releasing findings after being forced through Freedom of Information requests by Michael Biggs.
The Missing Follow-up Data
Perhaps most disturbing is the NHS's refusal to conduct a follow-up study on the approximately 9,000 youth who went through the Tavistock clinic:
"We know that roughly 9,000 children went through the GIDS system. We know that maybe roughly 2,000 children or so were on puberty blockers. We have a control group. All we need to do is follow up." - Stella O'Malley
The hosts discuss how adult gender clinics have refused to provide follow-up data on these patients, suggesting the outcomes may be negative. Instead of mandating this crucial information, the NHS has chosen to start yet another experimental trial.
Known Problems with Puberty Suppression
The episode highlights several fundamental issues with blocking puberty:
"Buying time" myth debunked:
"If there's one thing we know in 2025, it is puberty blockers do not buy time to think about your gender identity." - Mia Hughes
Persistence rates skyrocket: Before puberty suppression, 60-98% of gender-dysphoric youth naturally reconciled with their bodies. With puberty blockers, nearly 100% progress to cross-sex hormones.
Developmental interference: Adolescence is a crucial time of identity development and naturally resolving gender issues during puberty is blocked by these medications.
Poor scientific basis: The study opens with activist language about "gender incongruence," which Hughes notes "could never be scientific" because it starts from an ideological premise.
The Exclusion of Detransitioners
Carrie points out that detransitioners appear to have been excluded from the consultation process:
"I think that's why the NHS is so uncomfortable with detransitioners. And I think that's one of the reasons why they don't seem to have been a part of this process, because if they deal with detransition, they have to admit what has happened in the past and that it has not worked out."
The episode concludes with a powerful statement:
"Not one more child should be medicalized in pursuit of this experiment." - Carrie Clark
What Can Be Done?
Carrie urges listeners to take action:
Visit Genspect's website for detailed resources on the problems with the study
Read their briefing about puberty blockers and detransition with testimonials from former patients
Write to MPs to express concerns about the study moving forward
Refuse to accept "we need more research" as an excuse to continue harming children
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