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Six Republican senators in a letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli said they are “concerned about the transparency” of studies funded by the NIH, the federal agency responsible for conducting and supporting medical research.
His public statement of concern after an Oct New York Times report that a long-awaited study of puberty-blocking drugs had gone unpublished amid fears that its results would be “weaponized” by opponents of transition-related child care.
The letter is signed by GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Ted Cruz (Texas), James Lankford (Okla.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) and Mike Lee (Utah).
The long-awaited study, led by Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director of the Center for Transgender Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, began in 2015 as part of a larger, multimillion-dollar effort to assess long-term outcomes of medical treatment for transgender children and adolescents.
Olson-Kennedy and her colleagues were commissioned by the NIH to study the effects of puberty blockers, which prevent physical changes, such as breast development or a deeper voice, in boys at early puberty who struggle with gender dysphoria, or the distress resulting from a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and sex at birth.
Nine years later, the data remains unpublished. In October, Olson-Kennedy told The New York Times that puberty blockers did not necessarily produce improvements in mental health, which she said was likely because the children recruited into the study were already well when it started
Olson-Kennedy said she fears the conclusion will be distorted by those who oppose gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for transgender youth, an area of medicine deeply polarized and increasingly politically charged.
More than half of the nation as of 2021 has restricted or strongly banned some transgender care for minors and adults, in some cases. This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a historic challenge to a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming youth care, and drew more than 1,000 protesters outside the courthouse.
“I don’t want our work to be a weapon,” Olson-Kennedy said in October. “It has to be exactly to the point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”
In Thursday’s letterRepublican senators accused Olson-Kennedy of maintaining the study’s findings because they likely “don’t support her political agenda.” They referred to an independent review in the UK, known as the Cass Review, which found only “weak” evidence linking puberty blockers with improved mental health outcomes.
The findings of the Cass Review, which led the British government to ban the use of puberty blockers for minors outside of clinical trials, are themselves controversial, and health experts and doctors who treat trans youth have spent much of the past eight months since the report’s release debating whether it is accurate.
An assessmentof the Yale Law School Integrity Project, states that the Cass Review “hides key findings, misrepresents its own data, and is riddled with misapplications of the scientific method.”
Other peer-reviewed studies in the United States have found that puberty blockers are associated with positive mental health outcomes in transgender youth, including reduced depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
Senators on Thursday asked Bertagnolli to produce each annual progress report for the Olson-Kennedy study, writing that doing so would “ensure transparency in medical research.”
With the exception of Cassidy, each of the senators who signed the NIH letter has introduced or co-sponsored federal legislation to ban care for gender-affirming minors.
Cassidy, the ranking member of the Senate Health Committee, remains skeptical of transition-related care, and earlier this year he started an investigation in medical organizations that “encourage” the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors.
Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, say gender-affirming health care for transgender adults and children is medically necessary and it can save lives. They reject efforts by state and federal governments to restrict care.
Republicans in Thursday’s letter acknowledged that the U.S. lacks federally funded research into trans health care “that could better inform doctors and parents,” but did not endorse any other studies.
“To be clear, we oppose taxpayer funding going toward gender transition interventions for minors. While we recognize that this particular study is observational, we are concerned that minors may not have the ability to fully understand the lifetime outcomes of the interventions studied in this project and give their consent,” the senators wrote.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, has similarly opposed gender-affirming care for minors, health experts say. could threaten federal funding for future studies on treatment effects.
