The doctor, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, began the study in 2015 as part of a broader, multimillion-dollar federal project on transgender youth.
An older Dutch study had found that puberty blockers improved well-being, results that inspired clinics around the world to regularly prescribe the medications as part of what is now called gender-affirming care.
What Dr. Olson-Kennedy claims now is that everyone was doing so well when they came into the study that they were still in roughly the same place two years later: "They're in really good shape when they come in, and they're in really good shape after two years." Except her previous description of the kids coming in said about a quarter were depressed and/or suicidal when the study began.
So if 25% were depressed or suicidal pre-treatment and the study results showed no improvement, that would suggest that 25% were still depressed or suicidal after getting puberty blockers.
That one was launched in 2011 and also found no improvement in outcomes as a result of puberty blockers, but the results of that study were not made public until 2020.
Both studies, the UK and the still unpublished US version, seem to jibe with the findings of the Cass Review which concluded there was little to no evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers.
A situation in which a researcher can ask for money from the federal government to run a study, run the study, and then not release the results because they weren't what she wanted is a situation in which federal funding for science is fundamentally broken.
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