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The benefits of puberty-blocking drugs for transgender people are getting renewed attention after the researcher leading a major federally funded study was quoted by The New York Times as having delayed publishing some of her findings out of fear they would be “weaponized.” ” in a heated political climate.

Some advocates for gender-affirming care for youth say the report mischaracterizes the normal care researchers take to accurately present and interpret scientific data.

“It’s much ado about nothing and sensational that way,” says Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, Director of Education and Training at the Fenway Institute, a group that advocates for the health needs of sexual and gender minorities and those affected by HIV.

The storypublished Wednesday, cites Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States.

Olson-Kennedy said so in the studywhich she helped lead, puberty blockers did not appear to improve the mental health of 95 children ages 8 to 16 who were followed for two years to understand their mental and physical functioning as doctors used the medications to delay the physical changes associated with puberty, including things like body hair growth, menstruation and a deeper voice.

“They’re in really good shape coming in, and they’re in really good shape after two years,” Olson-Kennedy told the Times.

Her description seems to contradict the baseline characteristics of the 95 study participants, who were was published in 2022. That report reports that more than 1 in 4 had clinically significant levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. About 8% had reported a previous suicide attempt.

Olson-Kennedy did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The research project has received almost 10 million dollars in federal funding since 2015. The researchers has published more than two dozen papers on its findings, although an update on the group of children who were followed for two years after they were prescribed puberty-blocking drugs appears to be overdue.

Dr. Amy Tishelman, a psychologist and research associate professor at Boston College, said she understood the impulse to be cautious but that publishing the data is important.

“I feel it is imperative that research, especially research funded by taxpayer dollars, be published for the integrity of science,” said Tishelman, who helped write the first grant for the project, called “The Impact of Early Medical Treatment on Transgender Youth .” “We have to be straight about our results.”

Tishelman said the idea that the study participants didn’t see a change in their mental functioning doesn’t necessarily mean the therapy had no benefit.

“Puberty blockers may have prevented a decline in mental health,” she said, especially for children who may have had greater body dysphoria — or a sense of being in the wrong body — after puberty.

However, it is impossible to know without seeing the data, she said.

Several studies have documented high rates of suicide and suicidal ideation in transgender children and teenagers, and the physical changes of puberty can greatly increase the anxiety of feeling trapped in the wrong body.

For years, doctors have prescribed puberty-blocking drugs to some transgender people who are judged to psychologically need them as a way to reduce this distress, a model known as the Dutch protocol, based on early research supporting this approach in the Netherlands.

In 2017, the Endocrine Society—a professional group of researchers and medical providers focused on hormone-related issues—published a clinical practice guideline citing more than 260 studies supporting the use of hormonal therapies to support children and adolescents with gender dysphoria as well as medications to block puberty.

“Puberty-delaying medication is a safe, generally reversible and conservative approach that gives transgender and gender-diverse teens and their families more time to explore their options,” the Endocrine Society said in a statement Friday.

What’s more, the society notes, the therapy is not experimental or unusual. “The same treatment has been used for more than 40 years to treat precocious puberty,” it said.

This year, however, a comprehensive but controversial research review in the UK questioned the practice, saying the reasons for early puberty suppression were “unclear” and that any mental health benefits were supported by “weak evidence”. The review – known as the Cass Review for Dr. Hilary Cass, the pediatrician who conducted it – and its methodology have perished sharp criticism from some researchers and practitioners.

It has prompted providers in the UK to reduce their use of the treatment.

The Cass Review was published amid a growing backlash against gender-affirming care for children. As of 2021, 26 US states have passed laws that prohibit or restrict minors from accessing gender-affirming care, which can include medications to suppress puberty as well as other medical interventions, such as hormones to support gender transition.

A recent study found that these restrictions may have come at a cost, showing that youth suicide rates have increased in states that have passed anti-transgender laws.

Another study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics reported high levels of satisfaction and low levels of regret among more than 220 adolescents who had received puberty blockers and hormone therapy as children and teenagers.

Participants were followed starting in 2013 as part of the Trans Youth Project. Overall, 97% said they were satisfied and have continued with gender-affirming care. Nine children—about 4% of the sample—expressed regret about puberty blockers or hormones, and four discontinued their treatment.

Tishelman says she fears a more important point is getting lost in the Olson-Kennedys controversy study findings: that researchers may self-censor for fear that their work will be used against the people they are trying to help.

“The real implication of the story is that researchers may not be comfortable publishing data because of the political landscape right now in the country, and that’s very problematic,” she said.

CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.