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From the Washington Examiner: An influential American physician has admitted to delaying, for nine years, the publication of a taxpayer-funded study on the mental health effects of puberty blockers in youth with gender dysphoria for fear that the results could be used to support prohibitions of so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors.
Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a leading Los Angeles physician who runs the largest youth gender clinic in the United States, told the New York Times that she and her colleagues have delayed publication of results from a two-year-long study funded by the National Institutes of Health because they worried that the findings would be used by critics of transgender procedures for minors.
“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” Olson-Kennedy told the publication.
The nearly $10 million study followed the development of 95 children from across the country to see if their mental health improved following treatment with puberty blockers.
Olson-Kennedy said that treatment with puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements, likely because the children were doing well when the study began.
Below is a critical excerpt from the New York Times report [emphasis added]:
The doctor, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, began the study in 2015 as part of a broader, multimillion-dollar federal project on transgender youth. She and colleagues recruited 95 children from across the country and gave them puberty blockers, which stave off the permanent physical changes — like breasts or a deepening voice — that could exacerbate their gender distress, known as dysphoria.
The researchers followed the children for two years to see if the treatments improved their mental health.
To date, the project has received a whopping $9.7 million from the federal government, the Times acknowledged.
Although the study showed that the puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements, Dr. Olson-Kennedy claimed it was simply because the children were doing well when they started the study, and were still doing well after it concluded.
But she has held back on releasing the study, so it cannot be used against her.
In the nine years since the study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and as medical care for this small group of adolescents became a searing issue in American politics, Dr. Olson-Kennedy’s team has not published the data. Asked why, she said the findings might fuel the kind of political attacks that have led to bans of the youth gender treatments in more than 20 states, one of which will soon be considered by the Supreme Court.
“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” she said. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”
The NY Times further explained:
Dr. Olson-Kennedy is one of the country’s most vocal advocates of adolescent gender treatments and has served as an expert witness in many legal challenges to the state bans. She said she was concerned the study’s results could be used in court to argue that “we shouldn’t use blockers because it doesn’t impact them,” referring to transgender adolescents.
MASSIVE scoop here. Many of us have wondered why Johanna Olson-Kennedy’s team, which has received ~$10 million in NIH funding, hasn’t published its study on puberty blockers. JOK says the results weren’t positive and she doesn’t want them weaponized.https://t.co/YMgvsJ4giB
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) October 23, 2024
BREAKING:
Influential doctor Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who believes in “adolescent gender treatments”, is refusing to publish the results of a study that was funded by millions of dollars from taxpayers.
Why?
Because the study found that giving puberty blockers to children does… pic.twitter.com/jC0tSQy6IM
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 23, 2024
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