Pete Hegseth, United States Secretary of War (née Defense), is apparently looking to make America’s soldiers high T again.
On Wednesday, Hegseth announced a new policy that will mandate testosterone screening for many service members. The screening will be universally implemented as part of the annual check-up for people over 30, though younger service members can request it as well. The initiative is the latest instance of the Trump administration’s fixation on low testosterone as a major cause of health issues in men—an idea backed by shaky evidence at best.
“We owe our warriors the absolute best medical care in the world, and this program delivers on that obligation,” said Hegseth in a video posted on X Wednesday, aptly titled “The High-T Department of War.”
A real but overblown issue
Men do typically experience a gradual decline of testosterone as they age. And some men can experience symptoms linked to low testosterone, such as lowered sex drive as well as worsening mental health and energy. Studies have consistently shown that testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can help these men, and more recent research has eased concerns that TRT can cause serious complications like heart attack and stroke.
Still, the relationship between testosterone and men’s health and aging is complicated. Many men continue to have normal testosterone levels long into their later years, while others with relatively low T may experience no related symptoms. As a result, it’s not at all clear whether TRT should be used to prolong healthy aging for the average man. But that hasn’t stopped a thriving industry from emerging around TRT—one marked by several troubling trends.
According to the American Urological Association, for instance, up to a third of men placed on TRT today don’t actually meet the criteria for testosterone deficiency, while up to 25% of men aren’t even tested for their T levels prior to treatment. Once on TRT, nearly half of these patients aren’t even retested for their levels. And though the therapy isn’t as risky as previously feared, long-term TRT can increase the odds of lasting infertility, which is why the AUA cautions men who still want children to be especially careful about going on it.
Low T levels in younger men are also often linked to other lifestyle factors, such as high blood pressure or obesity, and focusing on testosterone rather than addressing these root causes can leave men still grasping for answers when their health doesn’t dramatically improve after going on TRT.
The T scapegoat
Low T has emerged as a popular scapegoat for all that ails men, particularly among the so-called “manosphere” and other right-wing movements, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) plank.
Kennedy in particular has cast the population-level decline of sperm counts and testosterone levels in men (a real trend) as an existential crisis (a much less certain claim). And as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy is now trying to make it easier for doctors to prescribe TRT. His FDA also recently took down a webpage that cautioned against taking TRT solely to address “low testosterone levels due to aging,” noting that the benefits and safety of this use are not firmly established.
Hegseth’s new policy, which seemingly applies to both men and women, will not require service members to get TRT if they test positive for testosterone deficiency. But with the federal government’s backing behind it, it seems certain that at least some of our troops will get pumped full of testosterone, even if they don’t actually need it.
For all his professed concern about the health of the nation’s armed forces, Hegseth recently scrapped the military’s annual flu vaccine requirement—a decision that may have already contributed to a flu outbreak at a Texas Air Force base and the death of a service member earlier this year.
