Kennedy Jr. Hands Out Testosterone, Hegseth Goes Looking for the Needy

The United States is fighting a war against Iran, its immigration officers are shooting people at intersections, and on Wednesday the secretary of defense identified a different emergency. Pete Hegseth announced a military screening program for testosterone deficiency so America's troops can perform at their absolute best. Beginning at age 30, every service member will be tested once a year as part of routine medical exams. Anyone younger can volunteer. The hormone therapy itself, he said in a video message, will of course remain voluntary.

When asked what disease the program was actually supposed to address, the Department of Defense pointed reporters back to that same video, in which the secretary said he wanted to keep the force strong and resilient and demanded maximum psychological readiness for the modern battlefield. The department declined to identify the studies supporting that claim. It also declined to answer whether female service members approaching menopause would be evaluated for the corresponding hormonal changes.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that the Pentagon will require annual testosterone screenings for all active duty service members beginning at age 30. According to Hegseth, the program is intended to improve military readiness. If a male or female service member is found to have low testosterone, they will be eligible to receive testosterone replacement therapy.

Medically, the entire proposal can be dismissed in a single sentence. Current medical guidelines explicitly advise against widespread testosterone screening. What they recommend instead is evaluating people who actually have symptoms, followed by two separate blood tests confirming persistently low testosterone levels. Anything else produces one thing above all else: numbers.

Friedrich Nietzsche, whose line about what does not kill you hangs on the wall of practically every gym in the world, mocked the self proclaimed improvers of mankind in the very same book. They reshape people and make them weaker, he wrote, all while never stopping their talk about strength. One can only imagine what he would have thought of an army searching for combat readiness in nanograms per deciliter. Anyone who first has to measure whether he is a man or a woman has already answered the question.

Hegseth insists this has nothing to do with artificial performance enhancement. That statement has a history. For years, elite military units, especially the Navy SEALs, have been suspected of using testosterone and related substances. When a recruit died during training in 2022, investigators found testosterone in his system, exposing a level of substance use that few had previously been willing to acknowledge. A year later, the Navy announced it would begin testing for every hormone related compound capable of increasing muscle growth. The same military is now testing once to find it and soon will be testing to prescribe it.

The timing is no coincidence either. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others in this administration are working to make it easier for doctors to prescribe testosterone, and last month the Food and Drug Administration proposed easing restrictions on gels, tablets, patches, and injections. At present, those medications are approved only for men with hypogonadism, a condition marked by dramatically low testosterone levels. Within Kennedy's movement, however, testosterone is promoted as a way to stay younger and mentally sharper, a claim the medical community does not support.

To be fair, recent research has been more favorable toward testosterone. Last year, the FDA removed its warning about heart attacks and strokes. Studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health found improvements in erectile dysfunction and libido among older men, along with a modest improvement in mood. When it came to fatigue, memory, and overall well being, the benefits ranged from very little to none. Other studies point to increases in muscle mass and bone density. Translated into plain English, that means the one area Hegseth uses to justify his program - maximum mental readiness - is precisely the one area where testosterone has been shown to accomplish virtually nothing.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, found the perfect description. To her, it sounded like gender affirming care, exactly the kind of medical treatment the very same secretary refuses to provide to transgender service members. Representative Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, said the policy proves Hegseth gets his ideas from the darkest corners of men's internet forums. Both women are calling for hormone testing for women as well as men because it could detect fertility problems early, conditions that affect military personnel of both sexes more often than the general population. Coming from a secretary who does not want women in combat, has blocked promotions, and has removed female commanders, that is highly unlikely.

Then comes perhaps the finest twist of this administration. In April, Hegseth abolished the military's influenza vaccine requirement, invoking medical autonomy and religious freedom. By June, nearly 300 Air Force recruits had come down with the flu during basic training. The shot that prevents disease is coercion. The shot that promises bigger muscles is compassion.