House Republicans have pledged to investigate a prominent transgender physician’s efforts to withhold the results of a National Institutes of Health-funded study on the mental health effects of puberty-blocking drugs on minors. are.
As previously reported by the Washington Examiner and other news outlets, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who runs one of the nation’s largest youth gender clinics, has delayed publication of the results of a multi-year NIH-funded study. There is a possibility. Her colleagues are concerned that the findings are being used by critics of transgender medical care for minors.
Olson-Kennedy said in an interview with the New York Times that early results from a two-year longitudinal study of adolescents show there are no positive or negative mental health effects of taking puberty-suppressing drugs. He said he was there.
“We don’t want our work to be weaponized,” Olson-Kennedy told the New York Times.
“This is a clear example of politicizing science at the expense of children,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) told reporters Thursday. “Research funded by taxpayer dollars through the NIH should be published regardless of the results, and Americans have a right to access the truth.”
Olson-Kennedy’s research, which began in 2015, received about $881,000 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and about $124,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health, according to NIH records. I had received it.
So far, Olson-Kennedy and her research team have published 29 papers related to so-called gender-affirming care for minors in conjunction with the NIH project. None of these directly address the effects on the mental health of children taking puberty blockers.
Most grant projects through the NIH have reporting requirements throughout the grant period to ensure that project progress continues to meet intended benchmarks. However, the specific reporting requirements for this project are still unclear.
Olson Kennedy is the medical director of the Trans Youth Health Development Center through Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
From 2019 to 2023, CTYHD prescribed cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to 103 minor patients, and 165 to minors, according to insurance claims information compiled by medical advocacy group Do No Harm. performed a heterosexual surgery.
CTYHD did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for an interview with Olson-Kennedy by press time.
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) said any attempt to suppress research into invasive medical interventions, especially on minors, is “irresponsible and inappropriate.” .
“The American people should be allowed to follow the science, even if the scientists who conducted the research came to a conclusion they didn’t want,” Griffith said.
Republicans in the House and Senate have become increasingly interested in investigating transgender medical practices in recent months.
Click here to read the full Washington Examiner article
The House Oversight Committee in August cited pressure from key Biden administration figures on professional medical organizations to loosen age restrictions for transgender medical procedures on minors, such as double mastectomies and vaginoplasty. An investigation has begun.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also said there is a lack of extensive research to support the effectiveness of hormone therapy and surgical interventions in women, regardless of gender. I started investigating what was going on. Adaptable youth.
