{"id":2696736,"date":"2026-11-03T08:23:58","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpro-trans-doctors-lied-to-keep-federal-money-flowing-for-puberty-blockers\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T08:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:33:12","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpro-trans-doctors-lied-to-keep-federal-money-flowing-for-puberty-blockers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpro-trans-doctors-lied-to-keep-federal-money-flowing-for-puberty-blockers\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Lied To Keep Federal Money Flowing For Puberty Blockers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpro-trans-doctors-lied-to-keep-federal-money-flowing-for-puberty-blockers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2696736&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A California endocrinologist, Dr. Michael Laidlaw,claims he found evidence that a large NIH-funded study of puberty blockers was halted under the Trump governance and then restarted after the investigators revised their proposal to remove explicit references to transgender youth. The study, which Laidlaw says received roughly $725,000 per year in several years, was described by its investigators as examining whether <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >puberty suppression improves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/american-academy-of-pediatrics-ripped-for-refusing-to-say-surge-in-trans-kids-comes-from-social-contagion\/\" title=\"American Academy Of Pediatrics Ripped For Refusing To Say Surge In Trans Kids Comes From Social Contagion\">mental-health outcomes<\/a><\/a> for young people who identify as transgender. It planned to compare brain scans and mental-health measures from two groups of early-pubertal youth who identify as transgender-66 who received puberty blockers and 66 who did not.<\/p>\n<p>Laidlaw, suspicious that prominent researchers with ties to pro-transgender medical advocacy would bias the project, filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The materials he obtained, he says, show a pause in funding in 2025 after the administration cut many diversity, equity, and inclusion grants, followed by resumed funding in 2026. In March 2025, according to the documents, the researchers told a federal grants official that the project \u201cmay generate concerns for the priorities of the current administration,\u201d and proposed two small changes: removing references to gender identity and focusing analyses on sex, sex hormones, and age rather than on gender identity or gender dysphoria.<\/p>\n<p>Laidlaw says the investigators also substantially revised their grant text to replace specific mentions of \u201ctransgender adolescents\u201d with generic \u201cadolescents,\u201d to drop explicit references to studying mental-health outcomes in transgender youth, and to remove mentions of organizations such as WPATH and the Endocrine society that focus on transgender care. He characterizes this as \u201cwhitewashing\u201d the proposal and believes the revisions alter the original intent of the study.<\/p>\n<p>If true, Laidlaw argues, the changes could amount to an attempt to disguise the study\u2019s real focus to avoid new anti\u2011DEI scrutiny and regain funding. He contends the maneuver is either transparently political or possibly deceptive, and he suggests that an NIH reviewer acting in good faith should have recognized the study\u2019s original purpose. He warns that knowingly misrepresenting a grant\u2019s aims to a federal agency could carry serious penalties, including sanctions or civil or criminal liability, and calls for an investigation and for sanctions if fraud is found.<\/p>\n<p>Given his view that puberty blockers can harm otherwise healthy children, Laidlaw urges halting research on puberty suppression for gender dysphoria. The piece concludes with a note that the author of the article is Jane Robbins, an attorney and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doctors-biden-administrations-dangerous-push-for-trans-treatments-for-kids-falsifies-science\/\" title=\"Doctors: Biden Administration\u2019s Dangerous Push For Trans Treatments For Kids Falsifies Science\">retired senior fellow<\/a> at the American Principles Project, who has worked on legislation related to parental rights, education policy, and religious liberty.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-reverses-trumps-ban-on-using-aborted-fetal-tissue-for-taxpayer-funded-research\/\" title=\"Biden Admin Reverses Trump\u2019s Ban On Using Aborted Fetal Tissue For Taxpayer-Funded Research\">federally funded research<\/a> on \u201ctrans\u201d kids stopped by the Trump administration, only to be revived a year later because researchers \u201crebranded\u201d their research to hide the trans focus?\u00a0California endocrinologist Dr. Michael Laidlaw may have <a href=\"https:\/\/mlaidlawmd.substack.com\/p\/nih-funded-study-on-puberty-blockers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">uncovered<\/a> such skullduggery in connection with a <a href=\"https:\/\/reporter.nih.gov\/search\/HGjq9GLLg0-MM7ENvfPELQ\/project-details\/10442698?utm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">multimillion-dollar NIH-funded study<\/a> examining the effects of puberty blockers on children\u2019s brains and mental health.<\/p>\n<p>The result is that taxpayers are being duped about what\u2019s being done with their money \u2014 and gender-confused children may pay the price.<\/p>\n<p>The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has lavishly <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Letter-to-NIH-on-withholding-research.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funded<\/a> studies seemingly designed to reach a particular conclusion: that transgender-identifying patients, even minors, should be offered irreversible medical interventions to help them imitate the opposite sex. This includes chemical <a href=\"https:\/\/reporter.nih.gov\/search\/HGjq9GLLg0-MM7ENvfPELQ\/project-details\/10442698?utm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suppression of natural puberty<\/a> with puberty blockers (PBs, for short).<\/p>\n<p>In January 2025, the Trump administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17&#038;utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called a halt<\/a> to these politicized \u201cstudies,\u201d directing the NIH to end $780 million in grants broadly termed diversity, equity, and inclusion (\u201cDEI\u201d). Litigation ensued. As the legal battle continues, some panicky trans-industry researchers have scrambled to modify their grant proposals to avoid the ax.<\/p>\n<h2>Study of Puberty Blockers<\/h2>\n<p>Enter Laidlaw, who has long fought trans mania in the medical profession. Laidlaw has recently focused on an NIH-funded <a href=\"https:\/\/reporter.nih.gov\/search\/HGjq9GLLg0-MM7ENvfPELQ\/project-details\/10442698?utm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a> begun in 2021, which the researchers described as \u201can essential step to addressing health disparities that currently exist for transgender youth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers aimed to determine if administering PBs led to improved mental health for trans-identifying children. The study would employ brain scans and other techniques to compare the brain development and mental-health outcomes of 66 trans-identifying children who were given PBs with that of 66 trans-identifying children allowed to develop normally.<\/p>\n<p>The applicants hypothesized that PBs (though possibly interfering with brain development in some ways) would reduce anxiety, depression, and substance abuse among so-called trans kids. The explicit point of the study was thus to examine the effect of PBs on these kids\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n<h2>Funding the Skewed Study<\/h2>\n<p>Troubled by the prominent involvement of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transgendermap.com\/issues\/topics\/media\/statement-regarding-laws-restricting-gender-affirming-medical-care\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">several researchers nationally known for advancing the agenda of the trans industry<\/a>, Laidlaw anticipated they would skew the study toward a preordained conclusion: that PBs are good for trans-identifying children\u2019s mental health. He thus sought information from the NIH via a Freedom of Information Act request to see what mischief might be afoot.<\/p>\n<p>When Laidlaw finally received the study documents he had requested more than 18 months earlier, he noticed some interesting developments. Significant NIH funding was paid annually (roughly $725,000 per year for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2026). Note the gap for 2025 \u2014 the year the Trump administration tightened the screws \u2014 and the resumption of funding in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Laidlaw theorized that 2025 funding was paused because of the Trump restrictions, but how to explain the resumed cash flow in 2026?<\/p>\n<h2>Whitewashing the Study<\/h2>\n<p>He discovered from the documents that in March 2025 the researchers wrote to a federal grants supervisor admitting that the study \u201cmay generate concerns for the priorities of the current administration.\u201d But they argued that their study was critical to determining the effect of PBs not on \u201ctrans kids,\u201d but on a broader array of patients who might be administered these drugs for other medical conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Only two \u201cminor changes,\u201d they assured the feds, could convert the study from trans focus to something else entirely:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>First, we will remove all references to gender identity from this project. \u2026 All analyses will be based on sex, sex hormones, and age [not gender identity]. Our discussion of gender dysphoria will be limited to characterization of the sample and will not serve as an analytic factor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, the researchers now claimed that gender dysphoria was only one of several areas they would study, even asserting that \u201cgender identity was not a major factor in our group comparisons or design of this study.\u201d Ignore everything we said before, this isn\u2019t a trans study, so give us our money.<\/p>\n<h2>Scrubbed Language<\/h2>\n<p>Laidlaw also discovered that the original grant application had been \u201cthoroughly whitewashed, bit-bleached, and rainbow-scrubbed to exclude the majority of the troublesome language\u201d in the application. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The original project summary proposed to examine the effects of PBs on \u201cthe mental health of transgender adolescents over time.\u201d The revised summary changed \u201ctransgender adolescents\u201d to simply \u201cadolescents.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The original summary suggested that PBs may benefit mental health of \u201ctransgender youth.\u201d The revised version: Puberty blockers \u201care used in a number of pediatric populations and are an effective means of suppressing puberty.\u201d No mention of the mental health of trans-identifying kids, the whole point of the study.<\/li>\n<li>The original documentation referred to the \u201cfocus on high risk symptoms prevalent among transgender youth.\u201d The revised version scrubbed that reference, changing \u201ctransgender youth\u201d to \u201cadolescents.\u201d The point of the study was no longer the point.<\/li>\n<li>Continuing the whitewash, the intention to \u201ccompare 132 early pubertal transgender youth\u201d became only \u201c132 early pubertal youth.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Laidlaw also noted that researchers had scrubbed all mention of the so-called \u201cstandard of care\u201d invented by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and what he calls \u201ctheir lackey, the Endocrine Society.\u201d WPATH focuses only on medical treatment of trans-identifying individuals, not broader \u201cpediatric populations,\u201d so all references to the organization disappeared entirely.<\/p>\n<p>Laidlaw can\u2019t swear that these revisions triggered resumed NIH funding for 2026. But \u201cwhat is not disputable,\u201d he says, \u201cis that the grantees submitted a progress report in 2025 \u2026 with very significant changes to the study\u2019s summary and aims. Those changes, in my opinion, alter the intent and purpose of the entire study.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Concerns about Deception<\/h2>\n<p>Could this all be camouflage to conceal the continuing purpose of the study \u2014 to justify inflicting PBs on trans-identifying children \u2014 while evading scrutiny based on new anti-DEI policies?<\/p>\n<p>If so, the maneuver raises two concerns. One is that the agenda seems so laughably transparent that an NIH professional, acting in good faith, couldn\u2019t possibly have been fooled. Only a bureaucrat who shared the researchers\u2019 political goals would have played along and restored funding. Deep State, anyone?<\/p>\n<p>The second problem is that such deception, if that\u2019s true here, skates perilously close to lying to a federal agency (and to taxpayers) to obtain a grant. This is not a minor offense. <a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/grants\/policy\/nihgps\/HTML5\/section_2\/2.3.10_fraud__waste_and_abuse_of_nih_grant_funds.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Penalties<\/a> can range from NIH sanctions regarding funding, to civil and criminal liability for fraudulent submissions. At the very least, the evidence demands an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Laidlaw argues for penalties to be imposed on any grant recipient found to have defrauded taxpayers. And given the demonstrable harm of inflicting PBs on healthy children, he suggests the only ethical solution to the puberty-blocker quandary: \u201c[S]top all of the harmful research on [puberty blockers] for gender dysphoria immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jane Robbins is an attorney and a retired senior fellow with the American Principles Project in Washington, D.C. In that position she crafted federal and state legislation designed to restore the constitutional autonomy of states and parents in education policy and to protect the rights of religious freedom and conscience. She is a graduate of Clemson University and the Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paraphrase:<br \/>\nThe piece questions whether federal funding for research on transgender youth was paused under the Trump administration and then revived a year later after researchers allegedly altered their project to hide the focus on trans issues. Dr. Michael Laidlaw says he found documents suggesting an NIH-funded study on puberty blockers (PBs) and their effects on brain development and mental health in transgender youths may have been steered away from a trans-specific aim. The study was described as comparing 66 trans-identified youths who received PBs with 66 who developed normally, to assess mental health outcomes, with brain imaging planned as part of the methods. Laidlaw notes that funding continued in 2022-2024 and again in 2026, with a 2025 pause that commentators link to the DEI policy shift, prompting questions about the timing. He alleges the researchers told a federal official that the work could be reframed to address PBs\u2019 use in broader pediatric contexts, and that two \u201cminor changes\u201d would remove references to gender identity and reframe analyses around sex, hormones, and age. He also claims the original grant language was scrubbed of transgender-specific terms and references to standard-of-care groups (like WPATH and the Endocrine Society), implying a whitewashing of the project\u2019s purpose. If true, the changes could constitute deception aimed at obtaining continued funding, with potential legal and financial penalties for fraud. The piece ends with calls to halt puberty-blocker research for gender dysphoria and to sanction any funders or researchers who deceived taxpayers, reflecting a broader argument about safeguarding children.<\/p>\n<p>55-character limit headline:<br \/>\nTrump halts NIH DEI funds; rebranded study hides focus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":691,"featured_media":2696737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1280px-NIH_Clinical_Research_Center_aerial-e1793389217654.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[4381,36513,3976,46634,58919],"class_list":["post-2696736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-ethics","tag-federal-funding","tag-investigation","tag-puberty-blockers","tag-transgender-healthcare"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1280px-NIH_Clinical_Research_Center_aerial-e1793389217654.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2696736"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2696752,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696736\/revisions\/2696752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2696737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2696736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2696736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}