House Republicans are promising to investigate efforts from a prominent transgender medicine physician to withhold results from studies funded by the National Institutes of Health on the mental health effects of puberty blockers for minors.
As previously reported by the Washington Examiner and other outlets, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who runs one of the largest youth gender clinics in the United States, may be delaying publication of the results from a multiyear study funded by the NIH because she and her colleagues are concerned about the findings being used by critics of transgender medical treatments for minors.
Olson-Kennedy told the New York Times in an interview that early findings of the two-year longitudinal study of adolescents show that there are no positive or negative mental health consequences from taking puberty-suppressing drugs.
“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” Olson-Kennedy told the publication told the New York Times.
“This is a clear example of the politicization of science at the expense of children,” House Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) told reporters on Thursday. “Research funded by taxpayer dollars through the NIH should be publicly disclosed regardless of the results, and Americans deserve access to the truth.”
NIH records indicate that Olson-Kennedy’s research, which began in 2015, has received nearly $881,000 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and nearly $124,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
So far, Olson-Kennedy and her research team have published 29 papers related to so-called gender-affirming care for minors in connection to the NIH project, but none of those papers directly address the mental health effects of children taking puberty blockers.
Most grant projects through the NIH have mandatory reporting requirements throughout the grant-term to ensure that progress on the project continues to meet intended benchmarks. Specific reporting requirements for this project are still unclear, however.
Olson-Kennedy is the medical director for the Center for Transyouth Health and Development through Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Between 2019 and 2023, the CTYHD prescribed 103 minor patients with cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers as well as performed 165 cross-sex surgical procedures on minors, according to insurance claim information collated by the medical advocacy group Do No Harm.
The CTYHD did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request to interview Olson-Kennedy by the time of publication.
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) said that any attempt to suppress research, especially on invasive medical interventions on minors, is “irresponsible and inappropriate.”
“The American people should be allowed to follow the science even when it leads to a conclusion that the scientist doing the study doesn’t like,” said Griffith.
Republicans in both chambers of Congress in recent months have become increasingly interested in investigating transgender medical procedures.
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In August, the House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into pressure put on professional medical organizations from key players in the Biden administration to loosen age restrictions on transgender medical procedures for minors, including double mastectomy and vaginoplasty.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, also launched an investigation into the lack of broad-based research to support the efficacy of hormonal and surgical interventions for gender non-conforming youth.