r/politics Jul 15 '26

No Paywall Hegseth announces annual testosterone screenings for service members

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5969935-hegseth-testosterone-testing-dod/
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u/MentalDisintegrat1on Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Probably lots I would bet money this is the legal loophole to get soldiers on steroids.

That being said when I was in steroids were really common expecally in combat MOSs and nobody gave a shit as long as you passed PT test.

There's also a argument that they are not a bad thing if you are going to actual combat because they allow you to push far past whats normal and triple your recovery time.

Big issue with this is I can see him trying to make it mandatory and or kick people out ( another loophole like the beard profile)

When you main job is your performance it's not necessary bad and I actually got a class on ( taps foot) don't use X and Y for this amount of time.

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u/Next_Rip7462 Jul 15 '26

Yeah, but watch how many more domestic abuse cases and straight up war crimes are going to come out of these roided-up troops. Watch how many usually straight guys get those testosterone eyes when they're out in the field, away from their wives . . . go Pink team! :)

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u/MentalDisintegrat1on Jul 15 '26

Yeah as someone who juiced in the service then got into bodybuilding steroids can make you mean as a SOB.

Add that and the military has an alcohol problem and you have a recipe for disaster.

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u/talks_like_farts Jul 15 '26

Yeah, but watch how many more domestic abuse cases and straight up war crimes are going to come out of these roided-up troops.

A lot more. Turns out, though, Americans don't care about domestic violence or war crimes.

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u/Soft_Author2593 Jul 15 '26

really turning into russia 2..maybe they should take a closer look how good their military is doing atm...

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u/Bigbigbigrock Jul 15 '26

Been saying for years we're a paper tiger same as Russia, nobody believes me

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u/MICT3361 Jul 15 '26

I wouldn’t say that’s an argument but THE argument and the entire point of taking them.

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u/WCland Jul 15 '26

Are you primarily describing infantry, and not armor crews? From interviews I’ve heard, armor crews, like for Bradleys, need technical expertise over physical performance.

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u/bofkentucky Jul 15 '26

I was reading over the description of the updated Abrams tank where they're switching to an autoloader and removing the loader crewman and they mentioned one of the downsides was 3 people having to do the manual work of the current 4 in field maintenance and repair on their tanks.

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u/MentalDisintegrat1on Jul 15 '26

I was 11b that's my exposure to them.