An NHS clinical trial giving puberty blockers to children will ask participants as young as 12 if they identify as ‘two spirit’.
The £10.7million trial will recruit 250 boys and girls aged between 10 and 15 who have been diagnosed with ‘gender incongruence’ and give more than half hormone-suppressing drugs that pause the physical changes of puberty.
The new trial called Pathways, commissioned by the NHS and to be run by a team at King’s College London, was granted ethical approval last week and is due to begin early next year.
It states its aims as evaluating the risks and benefits of giving puberty blockers to children who identify as transgender and have parental consent.
But critics have threatened a High Court challenge, arguing it risks subject children to experimental treatment which could harm them.
The Times reported that it has now been revealed that the children will be asked to complete a gender identity questionnaire as part of the trial.
The document begins: ‘In this measure, gender identity is defined as someone’s internal sense of self’.
The children are to then be asked ‘what best describes’ their gender identity and given a series of options to tick, including ‘definitely’ a boy or girl, ‘mainly’ a boy or girl, ‘neither a boy or girl’, ‘not sure’ and ‘none of the above’.
The trial was ask children over 12 about ‘gender identity labels’ including ‘two spirit’, ‘agender’ ‘genderqueer’ and ‘other’
Participants over 12 years old will also be asked about ‘gender identity labels’ and again given a range of descriptions to tick, including ‘two spirit’ ‘agender’ ‘genderqueer’ and ‘other’.
The term ‘two spirit’ has its roots in indigenous North American culture, where people have historically identified as having both a masculine and feminine spirit, creating a third gender role in their communities.
Gender-critical health practitioners including Dr Louise Irvine said the questionnaire already shows a bias towards ‘gender affirmatory ideology’.
Dr Irvine is a GP and co-chairman of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender – a collective of clinicians who have voiced concerns about the rise of gender ideology in healthcare.
The gender-critical group argue the ‘labels’ asked of the children were ‘ideological’ in themselves.
Dr Irvine told the Times: ‘It’s absolutely ridiculous. It shows that the whole trial is imbued with gender affirmatory ideology. What this question will do is reinforce the ideology in the eyes of the children.’
She added: ‘It will be confusing and most kids won’t even know what it means.
‘Questions should also be clear and clearly understood, so the study fails in that respect.’
Sue Evans, a psychotherapist and former clinical nurse specialist at the now closed Tavistock children’s gender identity clinic, also argued the use of the term ‘two spirit’ in the study suggested gender ideology was at play, saying that an idea originating in Native American culture had been ‘transferred in an ideological way’.
After a review by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass into the use of puberty blockers found there was weak evidence to support their use in treating children, the NHS stopped routinely prescribing them in March last year.
This was then followed by an indefinite government ban covering private clinics in December.
The new trial is intended to fill the evidence gap identified by Dr Cass in her review of the treatment of gender dysphoria in children.
It will study the potential health risks associated with the drugs such as bone density, brain development, and mental health over time.
