The head of the Pentagon announces annual testosterone tests for soldiers over 30 years old

WashingtonThe Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, announced this Wednesday that the army will conduct annual testosterone tests for soldiers over thirty years of age to ensure they have a "good biological foundation" and are "at the forefront of lethality." Those members of the armed forces who have a supposed testosterone deficiency will be offered treatment to inject it. "If a treatment is recommended, it is entirely your choice to receive testosterone replacement therapy," he assures in the video that the leader shared on social media. The measure is part of Hegseth's crusade to return to the army the culture of "testosterone masculinity.

"I am authorizing a new screening program to detect testosterone deficiency among our service members, ensuring you have adequate testosterone levels to operate at your best. Because it is well-established science that, as we age, testosterone levels often naturally decline," argues the Secretary of Defense. It remains to be seen which medical or pharmaceutical company will provide the treatment and what contract it will sign with the US administration.

Since Hegseth took the helm of the Pentagon, all offices related to equality and equity policies have disappeared. Not only did he suspend the admission of new trans individuals into the corps, but trans members already within the military ranks have been gradually sidelined.

Paradoxically, the administration that justified the ban of trans people from the military due to medical treatments now wants its male soldiers to be able to undergo hormone therapy. In the executive order that President Donald Trump signed in January 2025 to remove them, among other reasons, he cited that members had to "be free of any medical condition or physical defect that could reasonably be expected to result in an excessive period of absence from service due to treatment or hospitalization."

This is the latest in a series of discrimination episodes featuring Hegseth. Last month the newspaper The Guardian revealed that the Secretary of Defense eliminated all women and some Black people who were on the list of candidates to receive a promotion within the Navy. The final result was a total of 22 men, mostly white, who were promoted to one-star admirals.

Hegseth, however, is not the only member of Donald Trump's administration who has shown a certain obsession with the testosterone levels of his citizens. Health Secretary, anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, has also spoken about the possibility of injecting testosterone as part of a personal anti-aging treatment. In October of last year, he warned, without any scientific evidence, that today's American teenagers have "50% of the testosterone that a 65-year-old man has".

This argument goes back a long way. On social media there is a whole movement of influencers of the so-called manosphere who talk about a supposed testosterone crisis among American men. A study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine warned that young men are bombarded on the internet with influencers and companies that promote hormonal tests and treatments as something essential to being a "real man" and that frame common experiences such as fatigue, stress, or aging within a supposed "masculinity crisis" caused by a lack of testosterone. But the truth is that there is no scientific evidence to justify that a man of this age range should undergo any tests of this kind.