McClain Probes $9.7 Million Taxpayer-Funded Study Buried by Activist Researcher on Puberty Blockers

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) is conducting oversight of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after the results of a $9.7 million taxpayer-funded research project studying the effects of puberty blockers for transgender youth has been hidden by the project’s principal investigator. In a letter to National Institutes for Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli, Subcommittee Chairwoman McClain requests documents and information related to the ongoing project and unpublished project data.

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant of $9.7 million to an ongoing research project titled, ‘The Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth,’” wrote McClain. “We are alarmed that the project’s principal investigator, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, is withholding publication of the project’s research findings which cast doubt on the efficacy of the ‘gender affirming’ model, because she believes the findings could be ‘weaponized’ by critics of transgender medical interventions for children.”

One research study in this project, known as the Trans Youth Care (TYC) study, gave medical puberty blockers to 95 children in the early stages of puberty and observed subsequent mental health outcomes over two years. Dr. Olson-Kennedy has implied there have been no clinical impacts on mental health in the TYC cohort after initiating puberty blockers. However, a 2020 paper authored by TYC researchers conflicts with Dr. Olson-Kennedy’s account of the cohort as being in good mental health before the study began. According to this paper, the children in the TYC cohort did experience troubling mental health symptoms when the study began. 

“Dr. Olson-Kennedy’s apparent mischaracterization of the TYC study’s results and refusal to publish taxpayer-funded research because they contradict her pre-existing biases and could be cited by critics of ‘gender affirming’ medical interventions is an irrefutable example of politicization of scientific research to further an ideological agenda. Deliberately mischaracterizing and withholding the results of the TYC study has serious implications for the health and safety of children who are subjected to ‘gender affirming’ medical procedures, many of which are irreversible and hold lifelong implications despite lacking adequate scientific support for their efficacy or safety,” continued McClain. “NIH is responsible for overseeing its extramural research projects to ensure supported researchers practice transparency, exemplify scientific integrity, and are proper stewards of taxpayer funds.  Therefore, in light of the NIH grantee’s unwillingness to release the research project’s findings, we ask that you provide documents and information to assist the Committee’s oversight of this matter.”

Read the letter to NIH Director Bertagnolli here.