Multiple major children’s hospitals across America are co-conducting the taxpayer-funded project, using pediatric patients as young as 8 years old as subjects.

Under the auspices of an NIH grant, three top-rated U.S. children’s hospitals, which all house their own gender clinics, are operating as the testing sites: Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois; and Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

It is unclear whether the research project is still receiving funding from NIH. A spokesperson from the agency told the Washington Examiner that NIH is looking into the matter, but said “it appears that the project has stopped receiving funding from NIH.” The study is projected to last through April 2026, according to the award information.

The study, titled “The Impact of Pubertal Suppression on Adolescent Neural and Mental Health Trajectories” (a.k.a. the “Trans Development Study”), is currently seeking children in the early stages of puberty who identify as transgender or meet the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).

Of the 132 minors the researchers are aiming to recruit, half will be placed on puberty blockers within 30 days of enrollment, and the remainder, those not taking any puberty pausing drugs, are the control group.

Other studies have uncovered the damaging and irreversible effects of puberty blockers, such as an absence of sexual functioning in adulthood and diminished bone density development. The grantees notably did not list these effects under the study’s “Potential Risks” section on the funding application form, though they included a caveat elsewhere in the application that while puberty suppression is “typically” considered “fully reversible,” there are, in fact, “growing questions regarding its true reversibility.”

PEDIATRIC GENDER DOCTORS ADMIT PUBERTY BLOCKERS CAN BE IRREVERSIBLE

Puberty blockers are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating gender dysphoria. Still, pediatric gender clinics often prescribe gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa), known as puberty blockers, to prevent the appearance of unwanted physical changes naturally brought on by puberty. Sold under labels such as leuprolide acetate (Lupron Depot) and triptorelin (Triptodur), which lower testosterone levels, GnRHa are also commonly used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

At the outset of the study, the team of researchers, whose salaries were significantly supplemented by the grant, hypothesized that pubertal suppression medication “will have some positive impact on psychological well-being.”

The overall effects of puberty blockers, which are typically administered to patients during a critical period of their neural development, have not yet been systematically studied. If it produces positive results, this study would give trans activists ammunition to support their long-standing claim that transgender treatments for adolescents have mental health benefits, a claim that is not currently supported by evidence.

Beneath the “Knowledge to be Gained” portion of the project’s proposal, the researchers acknowledged that the long-term consequences of GnRHa on the developing adolescent brain, especially concerning cognitive capabilities, is “largely unknown.”

“This is a key gap as increasing numbers of transgender youth are seeking access to pubertal suppression treatment,” one of the lead researchers, Dr. Diane Chen, the founding psychologist of Lurie Children’s Gender Development Program, wrote in a personal statement for the project’s proposal.

In a letter confirming Lurie Children’s collaboration, Chen said the study “has the potential to provide much needed outcomes.” She affirmed, “We continue to be deeply committed to this work, and seeing it reach its fruition.”

Several of the study’s salaried scientists hold policymaking positions with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the lead LGBTQ organization prescribing public policy in the “gender care” industry and standardizing the sector’s “best practices.” The most recent revision of WPATH’s Standards of Care, Version 8, recommends providing medical intervention, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, at any age based on the belief that minors can consent to treatment.

BIDEN OFFICIALS PRESSURED HEALTH ORGANIZATION TO REMOVE AGE LIMITS FOR TRANSGENDER SURGERIES ON MINORS

Chen’s research partner, Dr. John F. Strang of Children’s National, is a WPATH faculty member for the group’s Global Education Initiative and serves on panels that set, as well as revise, WPATH’s Standards of Care concerning pediatrics.

Strang, who is cited as one of Version 8’s authors, is the director of his hospital’s “Gender and Autism Program,” the only gender clinic in the country specializing in special-needs children. An ardent advocate of “autistic Pride,” Strang has piloted research on transgender autistic adolescents and aims to strengthen autistic youth’s “self-advocacy” skills when it comes to expressing their gender identity.

On paper, the researchers assert that they’re strictly taking an impartial approach, simply comparing the two sets of subjects to identify patterns of psychosocial improvement or worsening in each camp.

However, where and how the study is being advertised hints at less impartial motives.

For example, the behavioral research arm at Lurie Children’s is promoting the Trans Development Study on a trans advocacy website, Stand With Trans.

Children’s National, meanwhile, is tapping an LGBTQ activist group to supply transgender-identifying kids for the study. On behalf of Children’s National, the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), a non-profit near Capitol Hill, is soliciting the parents of elementary-aged children enrolled in Little SMYALs, their K-8 program.

Little SMYALs manager, Taryn “Ty” Kitchen, sent the after-school program’s participants an email invite, with the headline, “What could be cooler than a photo of your brain? Supporting advocacy for trans kids, that’s what!”

The open call announced that SMYAL was partnering with Children’s National on the study’s enlistment efforts and analysis of the data ultimately collected. Kitchen, a self-described “nonbinary educator,” will be working with Children’s National as “a community consultant” to “help interpret and contextualize the eventual results.”

Attaching a referral form, Kitchen attempted to connect interested individuals with Children’s National, going so far as to offer to join the intake appointment. “Would you[r] child feel more comfortable with Ty joining the first meeting with the CNH team? This is optional, but we know sometimes a familiar face goes a long way, especially in a medical setting!” the interest survey says.

“Even though we know from experience how important gender-affirming care is for youth, the data simply doesn’t exist in a formal way yet, and I’m excited for our community to be a part of creating that!” Kitchen wrote in the invitation.

Kitchen framed the study as an opportunity to “significantly improve the data we have available when advocating for trans kids’ rights and access to healthcare.”

“Please know that I vet these opportunities seriously before sharing with our families, and am prioritizing this one based on its real potential for national policy and advocacy impact,” Kitchen said of the “intentions” of the researchers.

In a message praising the partnership, the researchers at Children’s National told the Little SMYALs community that this project will “document how different care choices during puberty support trans youth mental health and broader development.”

Chen’s previous NIH-funded projects offer further indication of which way the results may lean.

Despite leading to two suicide deaths, one of Chen’s “clinical breakthroughs” concluded that “Gender-Affirming Hormones Improve Mental Health in Transgender and Nonbinary Youth,” according to a 2023 press release from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, which is affiliated with Lurie Children’s.

“Our results provide robust scientific evidence that improved appearance congruence secondary to hormone treatment is strongly linked to better mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youth,” Chen, who was in charge of the study, said. “This is critical, given that transgender youth experience more depression and anxiety, and are at a higher risk for suicidality than cisgender youth.”

Chen neglected to mention that two adolescents receiving hormone treatment committed suicide while the study was underway: one after six months of follow-up and the other after 12 months of follow-up. The most common “adverse event” was suicidal ideation, seen in 11 participants (3.5%). Six withdrew altogether from the study, and two suffered severe anxiety triggered by the testing, according to the findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nicknamed the “Trans Youth Care Study” on “The Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth,” this research, reportedly costing over $9 million in NIH grant money, is nine years in the making.

In an interview with The New York Times, Chen’s collaborator, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, admitted they had delayed publishing long-awaited results related to a separate set of subjects put on puberty blockers because preliminary data did not show that GnRHa resulted in much mental health improvement.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PRESS NIH ON SUPPRESSION OF FEDERALLY FUNDED PUBERTY BLOCKER RESEARCH

“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” she said. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”

Olson-Kennedy, the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, claimed that the subjects in the nine-year-long study were already doing well when the study started and remain “in really good shape after two years,” potentially explaining why there supposedly weren’t many noticeable differences in the children’s wellbeing.

Her conclusion appears to contradict earlier findings from the research team. Over a quarter (28.6%) of the children studied exhibited “elevated depression symptoms,” while another quarter (23.6%) were suicidal prior to treatment, according to initial psychological profiling. Roughly 8% reported a past suicide attempt.

As for the Trans Development Study, once recruitment is complete, the research will consist of three check-ins per patient taking place over a two-year period. To incentivize participation, patients will be compensated ($150 each visit, courtesy of the grant) for completing assessments and research-related activities. Testing involves MRI brain scans, in-clinic behavioral tasks, and questionnaires to be completed by both the child and caregiver.

The researchers told NIH that at the end of year two, if they’ve failed to reach their recruitment goal, the study will start “partnering with community-based organizations serving transgender youth/families,” campaigning on social media, and recruiting “in locations families of transgender youth may congregate,” such as parks and summer camps. “The LGBTQ communities in all three site locations are large and vibrant,” the scientists said.

According to the latest progress report and renewal request, the researchers had only enrolled 85 participants as of March 2024.

Chen, Strang, and Nationwide Children’s principal investigator Dr. Eric Nelson have all collaborated before on a series of similar studies, which “laid the groundwork” for further pubertal suppression research, according to the grant material. Their current undertaking builds upon these previous findings.

Lurie Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Hospital, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital did not respond to requests for comment.