Doctor concealed tax-funded puberty blocker study after it did not show mental health benefits

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2024 / 17:45 pm

A doctor who runs the “transgender” clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles blocked the publication of a $6 million federal study on puberty blockers because the results failed to show any mental health benefits for children who were given the gender transition drugs, according to a New York Times report.

Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the leading researcher on the study and the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development, is a staunch proponent of allowing doctors to provide transgender puberty-blocking drugs to children who suffer from gender dysphoria.

The researchers, who received nearly $6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), gave puberty blockers to 95 children who suffered from gender dysphoria to analyze whether the drugs improved their mental health. The average age of the children enrolled in the study was less than 11 and a half years old.

Olson-Kennedy and her fellow researchers began the study in 2015 and planned to follow the mental health developments of the children over a two-year period. When a Times reporter asked her why she had not published any results nine years later, Olson-Kennedy expressed concerns that the findings could bolster criticism of the use of puberty-blocking drugs on minors.

The pediatrician admitted to the Times that the researchers could not find any evidence that the puberty-blocking drugs improved the children’s mental health. Instead of publishing the results, she concealed the findings due to the potential political ramifications. 

“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” Olson-Kennedy said, according to the Times. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”

According to the Times, Olson-Kennedy specifically said she was concerned about states that prohibit or restrict doctors from providing puberty-blocking drugs to children — an issue that will be in front of the United States Supreme Court in December.

Olson-Kennedy did not respond to questions from CNA sent by email about whether withholding the evidence could jeopardize the public’s faith in research on these subjects or about what she would say to parents who want to access this information before making medical decisions for children who suffer from gender dysphoria.

The NIH also did not respond to a request for comment from CNA.

According to the Times, Olson-Kennedy tried to explain the lack of mental health improvements by saying the children were “in really good shape [regarding mental health] when they come in, and they’re in really good shape after two years [of receiving the puberty blockers].” 

However, the researchers had previously reported that nearly 30% of the children suffered from depression going into the study, nearly one-fourth of them had suicidal thoughts, and about 8% had attempted suicide. When the Times pressed Olson-Kennedy on that fact, she told them she was referring to data averages but was still analyzing the data.

Olson-Kennedy is also working on a study with other researchers to analyze whether puberty-blocking drugs and other transgender hormone therapies impact bone development. Although they had planned to publish these results in 2019, those findings have also not been revealed as of late 2024.

Critics of puberty blockers for children are questioning the ethics and integrity of the research following this revelation from the Times.

“Scientific and financial integrity requires the release of taxpayer-funded research whether or not the researchers or others like the outcomes,” Jane Anderson, the vice president of the American College of Pediatricians, told CNA.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), told CNA that “individuals facing serious gender distress deserve better than the dissembling of researchers and the blocking of access to vitally important health information.”

“Negative results are oftentimes even more important than positive results when it comes to choosing appropriate patient care and treatments,” Pacholczyk added.

NCBC senior ethicist Joseph Meaney added that “it is highly unethical to conceal the results of a scientific study for personal or political reasons.” 

“Scientific research must be as objective as possible to increase our knowledge of medicine,” Meaney said. “Unfortunately, some scientists are motivated by other objectives than discovering the truth. Intuitively, one would expect that puberty blockers would not yield benefits because they artificially prevent the natural and health maturation of the human body.”

This is not the first time health care professionals have suppressed information that raised questions about the efficacy of gender transitions for children.

In 2021, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) altered proposed age-based guidelines for transgender drugs and surgeries for minors after facing pressure from the Biden-Harris administration. The association removed its recommended age minimums for every procedure based on concerns that the suggestions would fuel criticism of the use of puberty blockers for children.

An internal document showed WPATH officials knew that after reviewing “the evidence” they were “painfully aware of the gaps in the literature and the kinds of research” needed to justify their final recommendations. Yet the WPATH Guideline Development Group suggested that the group remove phrases like “insufficient evidence” and “limited data” so lawmakers could not use their document to justify restrictions on transgender drugs or surgeries for children.

More than 20 states have banned or restricted doctors from transitioning children’s genders, as have several countries in Europe. 

Earlier this year, doctors in the United Kingdom halted the use of puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria after an independent review found that there was no comprehensive evidence to support the routine prescription of transgender drugs for minors with gender dysphoria.

Some studies have also unveiled major concerns about puberty blockers, including a Mayo Clinic study published earlier this year that found that boys might suffer irreversible harm from the drugs, such as fertility problems and atrophied testes.

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A 15-year study conducted by researchers in the Netherlands found that two-thirds of children who wished they belonged to the opposite sex as adolescents ultimately became comfortable with their biological sex in early adulthood.