Hegseth Ordered Testosterone-Level Testing for Service Members Over 30

Hegseth says the screenings will help service members maintain optimal fitness and health. In a video about the program, he said military personnel should have “the testosterone levels necessary to perform at their best, since it is well established that testosterone levels often decline naturally with age.”

If testing identifies low levels and physicians recommend treatment, service members may choose to undergo testosterone-replacement therapy.

“This initiative is not about artificially enhancing performance, but about restoring and optimizing your natural potential, protecting longevity and providing the biological foundation necessary for endurance and combat,” Hegseth said. “We owe our warfighters the best medical care in the world. This program fulfills that obligation.”

Medical experts, however, say there is insufficient scientific justification for universally screening service members in this age group. Derek Griffith, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s-health research program, noted that low testosterone affects only about 2% of men. In his view, this does not suggest a widespread problem in the armed forces, whose members tend to be younger and more physically fit.

Griffith acknowledged that replacement therapy can improve the health of patients with a confirmed hormone deficiency. He nevertheless questioned the wisdom of devoting such extensive Pentagon resources to the issue when far more common threats to men’s health include heart disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, depression and alcohol abuse.

“I do not fully understand the new screening rules,” he said. “I do not know what exactly they are observing or what data they are relying on when they say, ‘This is what we should focus on and where we should direct our efforts.’”

Griffith also called age 30 a questionable starting point for regular testing.

“For healthy men, this is not ordinarily a serious problem,” he noted. “I assume that most active-duty service members are of normal weight. So I would be interested to know what proportion of personnel they expect to find with low testosterone and a need for treatment.”

Joel Heidelbaugh, a clinical professor of urology at the University of Michigan, also considers screening every service member over 30 “somewhat excessive.” Declining testosterone is usually accompanied by specific symptoms, including fatigue and reduced sex drive.

Normal testosterone levels in men range from 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter and fluctuate throughout the day, reaching higher levels in the morning. Testing in the absence of symptoms can therefore lead to overdiagnosis. The Endocrine Society does not recommend routine screening without corresponding clinical signs.

Testosterone affects sex drive, mood, weight and physical fitness. A deficiency may be associated with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and depression. Replacement therapy, however, carries risks of its own. One of the most firmly established consequences is a reduced sperm count, which threatens the fertility of younger service members who plan to have children.

“Testosterone, even in small doses, increases the risk of heart and kidney problems, infertility and fractures, which hardly seems a good way to keep soldiers combat-ready,” said Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University. “Hegseth’s remarks imply that testosterone prolongs life, but there is no evidence for that. It also shrinks the testicles. How manly is that? It is absurd to screen an entire population for a questionable condition whose treatment has unproven benefits and established risks.”

Brooke Nickel, a public-health researcher at the University of Sydney Medical School, linked the interest in hormone therapy to misinformation about masculinity spreading on social media.

“Young, healthy men are being told that ordinary experiences such as fatigue, stress or changes in libido indicate a medical problem—and that testosterone is the solution,” she said.

According to Nickel, normal testosterone levels vary widely, while the Pentagon’s decision to test every service member over 30 each year has a weak scientific basis.

It remains unclear whether service members who fail the new combat-fitness standards and are diagnosed with low testosterone will be able to receive treatment and then retake the tests. Hegseth previously tightened fitness requirements for personnel, requiring everyone to meet the “male standard.”

The Pentagon’s decision fits into the second Trump administration’s broader emphasis on traditional masculinity. A former National Guard member and Fox News host, Hegseth regularly posts photographs and videos of himself working out with service members, doing push-ups and lifting weights.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also makes a point of displaying his physical fitness. In a video released in February, he exercised shirtless and in jeans before riding a stationary bicycle in a sauna with musician Kid Rock. Kennedy has repeatedly described testosterone-replacement therapy as part of his “anti-aging protocol” and called the gradual worldwide decline in hormone levels over recent decades an “existential” threat to humanity.

This political and cultural context also shapes the debate over access to the hormone. For decades, the US Food and Drug Administration recommended prescribing testosterone only to men with medical conditions that impair its production.

Democratic Representative Becca Balint said Hegseth’s program illustrates how obsessed some administration officials are with a particular vision of masculinity. She said the fascination verges on “homoeroticism” while coexisting with homophobic views.

Balint, who is openly gay, told MeidasTouch journalist Scott MacFarlane that she found not the homoerotic undertone itself strange, but the attempts to deny its existence.

“Pete Hegseth is presented as the embodiment of the masculine, rugged macho man,” the congresswoman added.