WASHINGTON TIMES
The doctor who has refused to release the results of a federally funded study on “gender-affirming care” is being sued by a former patient, a young woman who says she was “fast-tracked” into a gender transition that culminated in having her breasts removed at age 14.
Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, oversaw the treatment of Kaya Clementine Breen. Doctors diagnosed gender dysphoria at age 12 during her first appointment in December 2016.
Ms. Breen’s medical negligence complaint says Dr. Olson-Kennedy “affirmed” the girl’s transgender identity within minutes of meeting her, put her on puberty blockers at age 12 and testosterone at age 13, and then referred her for a double mastectomy.
“She represented that if Clementine got a double mastectomy at an early age, the healing process would be easier, and that if she waited any longer, it would be impossible to do it right,” reads the lawsuit, filed Dec. 5 in California Superior Court in Los Angeles.
When Clementine’s parents objected, Dr. Olson–Kennedy asked “if they would rather have a living son or a dead daughter,” even though the girl had not experienced or expressed suicidal thoughts, the complaint says.
Now 20, Ms. Breen has concluded she was never transgender. She stopped taking testosterone early this year after seeing a therapist who treated her for unresolved trauma from a childhood sexual assault that left her uncomfortable with her body.
“It wasn’t until earlier this year, when I actually started doing research about my own doctor and the things that she said, like, that you can just get breast implants later, or that comorbidities with mental health don’t cause gender dysphoria,” Ms. Breen said in a video called “Clementine’s Story,” produced by the Center for American Liberty.
“And that’s when I started to realize that what happened to me wasn’t right and isn’t actually the standard, or shouldn’t be,” said Ms. Breen, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which is also a defendant in the lawsuit, said the center “has provided high quality, age-appropriate, medically necessary care for youth and young adults and their families for more than 30 years.”
“Treatment is led by the experienced physicians who practice at CHLA and is patient- and family-centered, following guidelines from professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and Endocrine Society,” a hospital spokesperson told The Washington Times.
At least 17 “detransitioners” have sued their medical providers in the past two years over the drugs and surgeries they were prescribed and now regret.
What makes Ms. Breen’s situation striking is the young age at which she underwent so-called top surgery and the renowned doctor in charge of her care.
Dr. Olson–Kennedy is a nationally recognized expert on transgender and gender-nonconforming children. She operates the nation’s largest youth gender clinic and is a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
She is under congressional scrutiny for withholding the final results of research on puberty blockers for transgender youths. Her research received $9.7 million from the National Institutes of Health.
A House subcommittee launched an investigation last month demanding that NIH turn over grant applications, progress reports and unpublished data about the study titled “Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth.”
Six Senate Republicans called on NIH to produce the study’s annual progress reports. In a Dec. 5 letter, they said that “taxpayers have a right to know the outcomes of the research they fund.”
The concerns were spurred by an Oct. 23 report in which Dr. Olson-Kennedy said she fears the study’s conclusions will be “weaponized.” The research found that the 95 children ages 8-16 who were treated with puberty blockers for two years did not experience improved mental health.
“They’re in really good shape when they come in, and they’re in really good shape after two years,” she told The New York Times.
Her description appeared to clash with a 2020 baseline update that said about one-quarter of the children were depressed or suicidal before treatment began.
Rep. Lisa McClain, Michigan Republican and chair of the House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee on health care, said lawmakers are “alarmed that the project’s principal investigator, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, is withholding…
