Gender Affirming Care in Exile: Targeting the Leader
The Carlat Psychiatry Podcast
Pocket Psychiatry: A Carlat Podcast
4.7 • 524 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The president of the US branch of WPATH built one of the largest youth gender clinics in the country, then watched it close under political fire. Now she's facing a malpractice lawsuit from a former patient. We examine the unpublished study at the center of the controversy.
CME: Take the CME Post-Test for this Episode
Published On: 05/11/2026
Duration: 16 minutes, 11 seconds
Chris Aiken, MD, and Kellie Newsome, PMHNP, have disclosed no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies pertaining to this
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today, we look at a controversial study that threatens to change the course of gender-affirming care. |
| 0:11.0 | Welcome to the Carlet Psychiatry podcast, keeping psychiatry honest since 2003. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm Chris Agen, the editor-in-chief of the Carlat Psychiatry Report. |
| 0:20.7 | And I'm Kelly Newsom, a psychiatric MP and a dedicated reader of every issue. |
| 0:27.6 | We'll start with a preview of the CME quiz for this episode. |
| 0:32.0 | Which medication improved symptoms of schizophrenia in a randomized trial of clozapine-resistant cases. |
| 0:39.2 | A. A. Repyprizol. D. Dextramothorfen. C. Gwanphacine. D. to Pyramid. |
| 1:02.0 | Dr. Joanna Olsen Kennedy is the president of the U.S. branch of W. Path, the medical society that has set the standard for gender affirming care since the 1970s. |
| 1:07.9 | Until recently, she led one of the largest centers for gender-affirming care at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. |
| 1:15.0 | In 2025, the hospital closed her clinic amid mounting political pressure. |
| 1:20.5 | The federal government had announced it would cut funding from hospitals, providing medical treatment for transgender youth. |
| 1:27.0 | Earlier, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law |
| 1:29.4 | prohibiting some gender transition treatments. Her clinic was not alone. Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, |
| 1:37.0 | and NYU have closed their clinic since the White House changed hands in 2025. A few clinicians |
| 1:43.8 | have been targeted as specifically as Dr. Olson Kennedy. |
| 1:47.6 | The reason, as reported two years ago in the New York Times, is a controversial study that has been |
| 1:52.8 | weaponized against gender affirming care. |
| 2:07.6 | In 2015, Dr. Olson Kennedy took charge of a large $10 million $1.I.H. funded study of hormonal therapy for gender dysphoria. She and her colleagues |
| 2:13.3 | administered puberty-blocking hormones to 95 children, average age 11, and tracked their |
| 2:20.3 | mental health during the treatment. To her surprise, their mental health did not change. To the |
| 2:27.5 | rest of the field's surprise, she didn't publish the results. Instead, she continued re-alyzing the data, searching for an angle that |
| 2:36.7 | would place the treatment in a better light. She argued that mental health hadn't changed |
... |
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