California gender doctor refuses to publish study on puberty blockers over fears it will be 'weaponized' politically

Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the director of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Center for Transyouth Health and Development, has revealed that she has not yet published the results of a long-awaited study on puberty blockers for minors because of potential political attacks, the New York Times has revealed.

Olson-Kennedy began the study in 2015, recruiting 95 children from across the US as part of a $9.7 million federal project on transgender youth, giving the subjects puberty blockers. Researchers then followed the children’s development over two years to see how the drugs affected their mental health.

A study from 25 years ago, commonly referred to as the Dutch protocols, studied puberty blockers and sex change treatment for a small cohort of young people who presented with gender dysphoria at a young age, mostly boys who presented as girls. This study was used as the basis for gender medicine in minors across the world but was re-examined in 2023 and found to have many fatal flaws. Even so, Olson-Kennedy told The Times that her study did not come to the same results as those previous ones, which were at the time widely considered to be positive.

Olson-Kennedy said that puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements in her subjects, and that this was likely because they were already doing well to begin with. "They’re in really good shape when they come in, and they’re in really good shape after two years." The conclusion differs from an earlier description of the group, which noted elevated levels of depression or suicide ideation or attempts.  

When asked why the results have not been published, especially at a time where the topic of sex changes for children is frequently in the headlines, Olson-Kennedy said that the findings may fuel "political attacks that have led to bans of the youth gender treatments in more than 20 states," the outlet wrote.

"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 data will be published at some point, she said, but added that the team has been delayed because of NIH funding cuts to the project and that the cuts were attributed to politics. The NIH denied that. Other researchers expressed alarm over the withholding of data and the affect this could have on families around the globe. 

Amy Tishelman, a clinical and research psychologist at Boston College and one of the study’s original researchers, said, "I understand the fear about it being weaponized, but it’s really important to get the science out there." She noted that even if the drugs did not lead to improvements, they may have prevented the children’s mental health from getting worse.

"No change isn’t necessarily a negative finding — there could be a preventative aspect to it," she said. "We just don’t know without more investigation."

In a progress report to the NIH in 2020, Olson-Kennedy hypothesized that the children would show "decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, self-injury, and suicidality, and increased body esteem and quality of life over time." Olson-Kennedy said that the study has instead found that "they have good mental health on average. They’re not in any concerning ranges, either at the beginning or after two years."

Dr. Hilary Cass, who published a review of youth gender services in England which led to the National Health Service in England to stop prescribing puberty blockers to minors, said that the delays in publishing reserach has led the general public to believe such drugs improved mental health.

"It’s really important we get results out there so we understand whether it’s helpful or not, and for whom," Dr. Cass said.

Olson-Kennedy previously was exposed talking about how she and others worked to deplatform detransitioners from speaking out about their experiences, writing on the International Transgender Health Facebook page, "so many of us worked hard to dissuade [60 minutes] from doing this segment." She has also advocated for double mastectomies for gender dysphoric 13-year-old girls, claiming that "If you want breasts at a later stage in your life, you can go and get them."

In a February 2014 promotional video for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Olson-Kennedy spoke on the research and clinical work she does with gender dysphoric youth. "So for those young kids who are starting puberty and have strong gender identities that don't match their bodies, those young people can really benefit from not ever going through the wrong puberty the first time," she said.

"It's much easier if we can halt their puberty early on in the process and let them be suspended for a little bit and then put them through the right puberty that corresponds to their brain. This is what we do over in our program," she continued, adding that "If we get kids early enough in the process, we put them on puberty blockers or medications that actually keep their body from progressing through that wrong puberty"and they can go onto hormones later in the future.