Study showing that puberty blockers do not improve children’s mental health is not being published for fear of ‘weaponisation’

The pediatrician behind a groundbreaking study showing puberty blockers did not lead to improvements in mental health among young people has claimed his team has yet to publish the findings to prevent young people being “weaponised” by critics of transgender medical procedures.

A. report published The New York Times reported Wednesday that Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy noted that they have not yet published the results of the two-year study. fear that it would fuel political attacks.

“I don’t want our work to be weaponized. It has to be on point, clear and concise. And that takes time,” Olson-Kennedy said in a statement to the press.

Influential Trans Care Doctor Once Warned Puberty Blockers Could Cause Permanent Sexual Dysfunction

Olson-Kennedy’s study, which began in 2015 and was funded by the National Institutes of Health, involved testing puberty-blocking drugs on 95 children around the age of 11 across the country to see whether the treatments improved their mental health.

The doctor told The Times that two years after the trials began, his team had found no evidence that puberty blockers improved the mental health of young subjects. Olson-Kennedy stated that she believes this result may be due to the fact that the children were mentally healthy at the beginning of the trial.

Read on the Fox News App

“They’re doing really well when they come in, and two years later they’re doing really well,” he said. However, the New York Times noted that the evaluation “seemed to contradict an earlier description of the group in which Dr. Olson-Kennedy and colleagues noted that a quarter of adolescents were depressed or suicidal before treatment.”

Exit faced Dr. Olson-Kennedy Why the findings have never been published, almost a decade after the experiments began. “The findings could fuel the kind of political attacks that have led to bans on youth sex treatments in more than 20 states, one of which will soon be considered by the Supreme Court,” the report said.

The pediatrician said he would release the data at some point and noted that the delay was also due in part to the NIH cutting funding for his study. He said that the decision was also taken for political reasons.

The institute denied the political allegations to the New York Times and did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on why it cut funding for Olson-Kennedy’s project.

The doctor, whom the publication described as “one of the nation’s most vocal advocates of teen sex therapy” and “an expert witness in many legal challenges to state bans,” added that he was concerned that the results of his study could be used. It has been claimed by opponents of the treatment that “we shouldn’t use blockers because they don’t affect young people”.

Boston Children’s Hospital Director Calls for Significant Increase in Gender Surgeries Capacity for Minors

But not everyone who attended Olson-Kennedy’s hearings agrees. “I understand the fear about this being weaponized, but it’s really important to get the science out there,” Boston College clinical and research psychologist Amy Tishelman, one of the study’s original researchers, told the paper.

Olson-Kennedy’s insistence on not publishing the data came as researchers from other countries published findings that did not take into account the ability of puberty blockers to improve the mental health of transitional youth.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has published findings from a 2020 independent review of gender-affirming care services for children and young people. Dr. Hilary CassFormer president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Cass’s review concluded there was “no good evidence” for medical intervention to change the sex of children and said it was “built on shaky foundations”.

The report also said puberty blockers did not help young people suffering from gender dysphoria feel better about their bodies, and that evidence on the mental effects of the treatments was insufficient.

Dr. Cass, Dr. He rubbished Olson-Kennedy’s decision to delay publishing his findings, telling The New York Times: “It’s really important that we get the results out here so we can figure out whether it’s helpful and who it’s for.”

Cass, whose work galvanized the NHS To block doctors in England Bay, who made the decision to prescribe puberty blockers to children because of the lack of evidence of their clinical effectiveness, added that he believes Olson-Kennedy’s delay has left the public with the impression that puberty blockers improve mental health among young people.

Neither Cass nor Olson-Kennedy responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley contributed to this report.

Original article source: Study showing that puberty blockers do not improve children’s mental health is not being published for fear of ‘weaponization’