Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that the Pentagon will begin requiring annual testosterone deficiency screenings for active-duty service members age 30 and older, saying the move is designed to improve military readiness and support long-term health.
The new policy, unveiled in a video posted to X, will make testosterone testing a standard part of the military’s existing annual periodic health assessments for troops over 30. Service members younger than 30 will have the option to receive the screening voluntarily.
“I’m authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best,” Hegseth said in the video.
My understanding is that the rate of medically low testosterone is pretty low outside of people with hypogonadism or injury, and of that small number of men some portion won’t even experience symptoms from low hormone levels. A doctor at a TRT clinic is probably going to have a hand wavey set of ranges they can use to prescribe test to anyone wanting to pay for it.
I think they’re either going to have to set the standard range at something a) medically justifiable and it will hardly flag anybody b) arbitrarily low so they can get everyone on TRT c) leave it to be subjective case by case.
First thought was how will this affect older
service membersWARFIGHTERS who are “deficient” and decline the “voluntary” HRT.Second thought was that all the young service members opting in are shoe-ins to get the docs to say hmm yes I see from your chart that you could be considered deficient, when would you like to start your permanent steroid program? I’m sure there’s a lot of juicing in .mil and LEO forces and this is a great way to put an official seal of approval on it.
There’s fucktons and like any problem where it’s accountable to nobody because the rule breakers are the enforcers it festers