$755,000: NIH Studied How Puberty Suppression and Hormone Therapy Affect Bone Development in Transgender Adolescents.

§ 01 / The Study

Sex hormones drive bone development at puberty — peak bone density is established in adolescence, and deficits at that stage increase fracture risk for life. GnRH analogs (puberty blockers), used in transgender adolescents to delay puberty, suppress the sex hormone surge that normally drives bone accrual. Cross-sex hormone therapy is intended to compensate for that suppression, but long-term data on bone outcomes are limited. The NIH NIAMS grant was generating longitudinal bone density and fracture risk data for transgender adolescents on puberty suppression and subsequent hormone therapy.

This research is directly relevant to the most contested aspect of the transgender adolescent debate — the long-term effects of puberty suppression. Critics of puberty blockers argue they cause irreversible bone damage; proponents argue they are reversible and safe. The NIH grant was generating the outcome data that could answer that question empirically. Terminating it prevents the evidence from being collected.

What This Means

$755,000 in NIH NIAMS funding for bone density and fracture risk research in transgender adolescents receiving hormone therapy. The research was generating the long-term safety data on puberty suppression that both sides of the policy debate claim to want. Terminated February 2025 under EO 14168. Terminating the research does not resolve the safety question — it prevents it from being answered with longitudinal evidence.

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