EXCLUSIVE — Six Republican senators sent a letter to the National Institutes of Health Thursday night demanding the agency provide Congress with information related to a controversial taxpayer-funded study on transgender children.
The study, which was funded through a $5.7 million NIH grant disbursed in 2015, paid scientists to administer puberty blockers to two cohorts of children, one older and one younger, to study the physical and psychosocial impact of the drugs. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, one of the researchers working on the project, recently admitted to withholding the results of the younger cohort because she believed it would be weaponized to advocate against the use of puberty blockers.
While the results of the study have not been released to the public, recipients of NIH grants are required to submit progress reports to the agency regarding the state of their research. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R‑LA), Tommy Tuberville (R‑AL), Ted Cruz (R‑TX), James Lankford (R‑OK), Markwayne Mullin (R‑OK), and Mike Lee (R‑UT) have asked the NIH to turn over each annual progress report provided to the agency by researchers working on the project, according to a copy of a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“While we recognize that this particular study is observational, we remain concerned that minors lack the ability to fully understand the lifelong outcomes of the interventions studied in this project and provide their consent,” the senators wrote. “Further, taxpayers have the right to know the outcomes of the research they fund, particularly when the intervention studied has life-altering impacts.”
Olson-Kennedy, an ardent proponent of performing gender-transition procedures on minors, said she decided to withhold the results of her study after it was found that providing young children with puberty blockers did not improve their mental health. The researcher argued that the children’s mental health did not improve because they began at a high baseline — however, an earlier description of the cohort said that a quarter were either depressed or suicidal before the study began. Two children involved in the study also took their own lives.
“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” she said, promising that the data would be released at some point. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”
Since 2015, the project’s cost has grown to $9.7 million.
In their letter, the senators point to a similar instance in the United Kingdom where researchers delayed the publication of a study that failed to show puberty blockers improving the mental health of transgender children. Once the results of the British study were made public, and following an independent review, the country’s National Health Service decided to stop providing children with puberty blockers.
“I understand the fear about it being weaponized, but it’s really important to get the science out there,” Amy Tishelman, one of the study’s original researchers, said about Olson-Kennedy’s decision to withhold the data.
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The Department of Health and Human Services has, under President Joe Biden, promoted hormone therapy for transgender minors while simultaneously funding research into the possible negative health ramifications of such interventions. Among other things, HHS funded research into how transgender medical procedures could increase the risk of cancer, chronic headaches, infections, Alzheimer’s disease, and skeletal deformities.
NIH officials have until Dec. 19 to respond to the senators’ request. The effort from Senate Republicans follows a similar investigation launched by Republicans on the House Oversight Subcommittee on Healthcare and Financial Services seeking information on Olson-Kennedy’s research. The House Energy and Commerce is also poised to look into the research.
The NIH did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.