Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in mid-July that every service member aged 30 and older will get annual testosterone testing and those with low results will be offered voluntary hormone replacement therapy.
- The Pentagon has told services to craft implementation plans but has not released diagnostic cutoffs, confirmatory testing procedures, monitoring rules or cost estimates for the program.
- Medical experts say routine population screening departs from clinical practice because diagnosis normally requires repeat morning tests for symptomatic men and evidence that raising testosterone improves performance in healthy people is weak.
- Clinicians warn testosterone replacement can cause real harms such as suppressed natural production and infertility, higher red blood cell counts that raise clot risk, raised blood pressure and other cardiovascular signals.
- A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to explain how the program relates to the administration's ban on transgender hormone care and set an expedited schedule that could lead to a January 2027 trial window.