A researcher who received federal funds for a study on treating transgender youth with puberty blockers has refused to publish the results because she fears they could be “weaponized” to oppose gender-transition drugs for minors.
Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director for the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, began the study in 2015 as part of a broader federal project on transgender health, which has received $9.7 million from the National Institutes of Health.
The research found that the mental health of the subjects — 95 adolescents with an average age of 11 — who received puberty blockers was largely unchanged after two years, but she has yet to release the results.
“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” she told the New York Times. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”
Wednesday’s blockbuster report touched off an outcry on social media, with critics accusing the researchers and the agency of placing activism over scientific evidence.
“This is not science. This is activism and the NIH should not be funding it,” Camilo Ortiz, a professor of clinical psychology at Long Island University, wrote on X. “A real scientist accepts what the data show and has an allegiance to the truth.”
By publishing the results, however, Dr. Olson-Kennedy said she worried that foes would seize on them to argue that “we shouldn’t use [puberty] blockers because it doesn’t impact them,” meaning transgender youth.
An NIH spokesperson told the Times that the agency leaves it to researchers to decide how and when to publish their results, although they are encouraged to do so.
Twenty-two states have banned gender-transition drugs and surgeries for minors, while another two states have banned surgeries only, as the debate over “gender-affirming care” reverberates through political and medical spheres.
Well how about that?
— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) October 23, 2024
Johanna Olson-Kennedy buried her own study that shows puberty blockers DON’T help kids. @elonmusk was right when he called her evil.
She’s the doctor who gave puberty blockers to 12-year-old Clementine after one 30-minute appointment, while ignoring the… pic.twitter.com/7vW4I6Ehti
Dr. Olson-Kennedy’s study sought to mirror the Dutch Protocol, the paper by Netherlands researchers published in 2006 that found children whose gender dysphoria was treated with puberty blockers had better mental health outcomes.
The Dutch Protocol helped spur the worldwide explosion of gender youth clinics that treat children who identify as the opposite sex with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, although critics argue that the research’s results have never been replicated.
Dr. Olson-Kennedy said in a progress report to NIH that her team sought to show that the children would experience decreased depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, but found after two years that the subjects’ mental health was largely unchanged.
“They’re in really good shape when they come in, and they’re in really good shape after two years,” said Dr. Olson-Kennedy, who heads the nation’s largest gender youth clinic.
The Times article challenged her assertion, citing a 2020 progress report that showed about one-quarter of the children suffered from depression and one-quarter reported thoughts of suicide.
The Dutch Protocol was called into question by the Cass Review, the four-year British study led by Dr. Hilary Cass released in April that found “weak evidence” to support the benefits of puberty suppression and cited the risks, including the possibility of impaired cognitive function.
Dr. Olson-Kennedy said that she has “prescribed puberty blockers and hormonal treatments to transgender children and adolescents for 17 years,” and has seen “how profoundly beneficial they can be,” according to the Times.
While she said she intends to publish the results, she said her team has been delayed over NIH funding cuts to the project, which the NIH denied.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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