WASHINGTON, D.C. — The final report for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded “Trans Youth Care” study led by Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles was finally made public this month, after the government watchdog organization Oversight Project was forced to sue the agency for its release.
The multi-year, multi-million-dollar observational study examining physiological and psychological effects of puberty blockers and sex-denying hormones on youth with gender dysphoria has concluded, and the final report was submitted January 6, 2026.
This taxpayer-funded research was intended to evaluate longer-term impacts of these interventions. Its conclusions reinforce a growing body of evidence that puberty blockers lack reliable proof of benefit for children and carry long-known risks to bone density, fertility, sexual function, and development.
“The mass medical experiments on children need to stop,” said Doug Napier, Executive Chairman and CEO of 1792 Exchange. “These findings align with the emerging consensus that there is no benefit, but significant risks of harm to children, including impacts on bone density, fertility, sexual function, and cognitive development.”
“The Cass Review in the United Kingdom, the Finland study, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ own 2025 peer-reviewed report on pediatric gender dysphoria all underscore the serious concerns about the impacts of these experiments. And this study is yet another nail in the coffin for transgender ideology,” Napier continued.
The data on puberty blockers for children continue to show no significant positive mental or emotional health gains. Earlier peer-reviewed and preprint analyses from the same “Trans Youth Care” cohort—tracking depression symptoms, emotional health, and parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist constructs over 24 months of pubertal suppression—found no significant changes. Mental health metrics did not improve.
These results stand in contrast to the claims to justify interrupting the normal puberty of physically healthy children. The study’s principal investigator withheld full publication of the findings, citing concerns they could be “weaponized.”
Though this is the “final report,” it is not a complete report. As medical experts at Do No Harm have noted, “it appears that a significant amount of data reportedly collected by this grant thus far remains unreported. We hope that additional information will be forthcoming. Otherwise, such secrecy serves neither the interests of science nor patients.”
WPATH’s Court Admission Further Undermines the Case for Coverage
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), whose “Standards of Care” have been widely cited by insurers, hospitals, and corporations to justify covering sex-denying drugs and procedures, has publicly walked back its posture in federal court. In a recent motion to dismiss an FTC and multi-state lawsuit alleging deceptive claims about pediatric medical transition, WPATH argued that its guidance represents “opinions” rather than bare assertions of fact, constitutes one side of an “intense medical debate,” and addresses a field marked by “medical and scientific uncertainty.” The organization maintains its statements are protected free speech and that clinicians bear independent responsibility for their advice.
Critics, including the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, have described this as a significant shift from years of presenting the Standards of Care as authoritative medical consensus. The FTC suit, joined by Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas, alleges WPATH provided a framework for unsubstantiated claims of safety, necessity, and consensus—particularly after removing age limits for certain surgeries without evidentiary basis and labeling nearly all pediatric transition services “medically necessary” in ways that facilitate insurance coverage.
The new HHS report, Wolves in White Coats, examining insurance coding practices and financial incentives surrounding sex-rejecting procedures on minors, adds further weight to concerns about how these interventions have been packaged and reimbursed.
Corporate Responsibility and the Role of Employee Health Plans
While science continues to catch up, hundreds of American corporations have for years used their employee health plans to finance these experimental and irreversible procedures, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, for minor dependents of employees. According to 1792 Exchange research, at least 550 major companies continue to treat these interventions as standard covered benefits.
“1792 Exchange commends Walmart and Charles Schwab for taking concrete, positive steps to remove coverage of gender-transition procedures for minors from their employee health plans,” said Napier. “These companies recognized that facilitating experimental medicalization of healthy children is neither sound medicine nor responsible corporate governance. Their decisions reflect a return to focusing on core business, employee well-being grounded in evidence, and the protection of children rather than ideological activism.”
“We call on every other company still funding these radical and unproven ‘treatments’ on minors through their health plans to cease immediately. Covering puberty blockers and related drugs and surgeries for children inserts employers into irreversible decisions that parents, physicians, and policymakers are increasingly recognizing as experimental and high-risk. Corporations exist to create value for shareholders, customers, and employees, not to underwrite mass medical experiments on minors.”
1792 Exchange’s Corporate Bias Ratings database continues to document which companies prioritize political and ideological agendas over evidence-based policies and fiduciary responsibility. Companies that persist in covering these procedures for minors will continue to face scrutiny from shareholders, employees, customers, and the public.
“Children deserve protection, not experimentation,” said Napier. “Companies that fund experimental medical interventions on minors through employee benefits are complicit in a practice that the best available evidence does not support. It is time for corporate America to stop.”
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