NIH-Funded Study Finds Puberty Blockers Failed to Improve Youth Mental Health
A taxpayer-funded study of children and young adults taking puberty blockers and hormone treatments found no improvement in youth mental health.
The Oversight Project, a watchdog group, obtained the final report of “The Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth” and shared it with the Daily Signal.
The National Institutes of Health first allocated a nine-year grant of up to $10 million for the study through the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. The study was led by Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who specializes in “gender-affirming care.”
The study included people as young as 8 years old. The sample receiving puberty blockers included participants up to age 16, while the sample receiving hormone treatments included participants up to age 20.
“Over 2 years of medical intervention that started with blockers, mental health remained relatively stable and was on par with the population at large,” the final report says. “These youth showed no worsening of their mental or emotional health and suicidality decreased from baseline to 24 months. Mean scores on mental health measures remain stable in a clinically non-significant range over two years.”
The longstanding argument for advocates of “transing” minors has been that not doing so could cause depression or suicide among youth.
