Pentagon to screen troops over 30 for testosterone deficiency

Service members age 30 and older will now get annual testosterone screenings under a new Pentagon policy that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week. Troops under 30 can volunteer for testing, and those diagnosed with a deficiency may be offered voluntary testosterone replacement therapy.

Hegseth said the aim was to make sure troops have the right testosterone levels to perform at their “absolute best.” The Pentagon framed the move as part of annual or periodic health assessments, placing hormone testing inside routine military medicine rather than treating it as a one-off program.

The announcement landed quickly in the middle of a broader argument over masculinity, performance culture, and how far wellness language has moved into military-adjacent institutions. The New York Times has described Hegseth as seeking to cultivate an image as a manosphere-friendly leader, a characterization that fits his public rhetoric and his 2024 book The War on Warriors, which warned that the military risked becoming “effeminate” and “apologetic.”

Medical and public health voices were swift to question both the science and the symbolism. ABC News Australia quoted public health expert Samuel Cornell saying the policy shows manosphere wellness culture “seeping its way into” the U.S. government. Other coverage raised doubts about whether annual screening across the force would improve readiness or simply normalize a supplement-and-optimization mindset that has spread from social media into gyms, clinics, and now military policy.

The policy also left important questions unanswered. The BBC reported that the Pentagon was silent on whether hormone replacement therapy would be available to women, even as the screening program was presented as a broad readiness measure for the force. NBC News said service members 30 and older would undergo the annual screening and could choose whether to pursue TRT.

Reuters reported the announcement on July 16, and ABC News said it marked a significant shift on a health issue that has gained momentum in recent years. The practical effect now turns on implementation: how the military defines deficiency, who qualifies for treatment, and whether a policy sold as optimization becomes another test of how command culture absorbs the logic of online masculinity branding.