Fury as doctor refuses to publish study that finds puberty blockers do not improve mental health in children

A prominent doctor has faced backlash after he decided not to release an early report on the effects of puberty-blocking drugs amid heated debate on the issue.

Johanna Olson-Kennedy, an advocate of teen gender treatment, was expected to release a taxpayer-funded study on how drugs could worsen youth angst. The study is part of a £10m federal project on trans young people.

But he received harsh criticism when he delayed publication, writing: “I don’t want our work to be a weapon. It has to be exactly to the point, clear and concise. And that takes time.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling was quick to chime in with a sarcastic post on Twitter/X about the decision.

“We shouldn’t publish a study that says we’re hurting kids because people who say we’re hurting kids will use the study as proof that we’re hurting kids, which could make it harder for us to continue hurting kids children,” he said. he wrote, sharing the original New York Times report.

Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy said she feared the study’s results could be “weaponized”

(File) Researchers are expected to publish a study on how blockers could affect young people

Elon Musk shared the post with a “direct hit” target emoji, prompting divided comments online.

The Twitter/X owner’s followers responded with more emojis, judging the decision to delay the post “awesome” and “disgusting”.

Under the author’s original post, Prisa Mosley, a transitioning activist, wrote, “You can’t give informed consent when people choose not to inform you for political reasons.”

Others accused the researchers of “pushing” the study “to the side” when it didn’t produce “the results you wanted.” The researchers have made no indication that this is the case.

The doctor argued that the findings could have fueled political attacks, leading to a ban on medical treatments for young people.

He expressed concern that the results of the study could be used in court to claim that “we shouldn’t be using blockers because it doesn’t affect (trans teens).”

The small study of 95 boys who received puberty blockers, to slow the development of sexual characteristics, gave seemingly contradictory results.

Olson-Kennedy said in an interview with the NYT that the drugs did not produce significant improvements in mental health, likely because the participants were already “in very good shape” when they entered.

“They have good mental health on average,” he said. “They are not in any range of concern, not at the beginning or after two years.”

She and her colleagues had previously reported that a quarter of participants were depressed or suicidal before treatment.

He said he was just referring to averages and was still analyzing the data.

Amy Tishelman, one of the study’s researchers, said that even if the drugs don’t improve mental well-being, they may have helped some children get worse.

“No change is necessarily a negative finding — there could be a preventative aspect to it,” he said, calling for more research.

The study began in 2015 as part of a larger state-funded project to help make informed decisions about care for gender-affirming trans people.

Olson-Kennedy said she still plans to release the data, saying her team had been delayed by funding cuts.

The National Institutes of Health denied the funding cut, according to the New York Times.

The outlet claims the larger project has received $9.7 million in total government support so far.

A publication from early 2015 shows £5.7m allocated for a five-year multi-centre study to “assess the long-term outcomes of medical treatment for transgender young people”.

Several other peer-reviewed studies published with NIH funding from the award, R01HD082554, have found positive results from puberty-blocking drugs.

One, published in 2021, concluded that “both implants are effective in suppressing puberty in early and mid-pubertal youth with gender dysphoria.”

“These data may inform decisions about insurance coverage of Supprelin and/or Vantas for youth with gender dysphoria.”

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The development of secondary sex characteristics, such as breasts and facial hair, in young trans people can intensify the onset of dysphoria.

The term refers to a feeling of distress caused in people whose gender is different from the sex assigned at birth.

Gender refers to “the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men,” according to the WHO.

These norms vary from culture to culture and often evolve.

Some early transitioners have become staunch critics of prescribing puberty-blocking treatments to young people.