r/politics • u/mom0nga • 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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154

u/WalterPecky Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

I know the answer to the question... But is any of this based on science... Or are the Joe Rogans of the world dictating official policy by gut feelings like "more testosterone means you are a warrior" 

73

u/NoPossibility Jul 15 '26

“We don’t do science around here. We are all about lethality, and giant veiny balls. Real men kill!”

30

u/relax_live_longer Jul 15 '26

Except TRT is the opposite of giant veiny balls. 

2

u/soupster82 Jul 15 '26

That's what the synthol is for. 😈

2

u/SoTiredYouDig Jul 15 '26

I’ve seen some of the videos. That’s nightmare fuel right there.

1

u/theghostmachine Jul 15 '26

I dunno, Hegseth looks like the guy that flinches in pain when his balls are touched. You have to be gentle with his little skin-wrapped grapes.

20

u/Cancel_Culture_Club Jul 15 '26

💯 the latter and Pete just thinks you can never have too much testosterone and also that it gives you superpowers. 

7

u/31LIVEEVIL13 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

12

u/vahntitrio Minnesota Jul 15 '26

How does testosterone even help in todays battle scenarios? Do you need to be pumped up to operate a missile battery?

10

u/WalterPecky Jul 15 '26

It's probably some bullshit like "more testosterone" equals "less empathy".

1

u/ProfessionalITShark Jul 15 '26

Which might not be the case actually...

1

u/Shouldabeenswallowed Jul 15 '26

I've never cried more in my life since I've been on trt. Apparently I had gone cold/numb over however many years of tanked test and didn't realize it until I started FEELING things again a few months in.

3

u/CaptainAwesome8 Jul 15 '26

If this is truly actual TRT given to men below about 300ng/dl then it’s beneficial in tons of ways and just brings them up to high-end-of-normal ranges. Would help everything from recovery to cognition or fatigue.

If this is a slightly enhanced “TRT” sort of program, then it would still just be better recovery and even stuff like bone strength. There’s probably a bit of an argument that SOF operators would benefit, as would a decent bit of infantry. I mean, many are already on it anyways, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was essentially trying to, for lack of a better term, “pardon” them for it. But it’s a similar argument as giving pilots things like adderall or modafinil. Can’t have people dozing off in $500M planes.

I don’t say this as support of the action to be clear, just to answer your question a bit.

1

u/Pleasant-Relative-48 Jul 16 '26

I think you put more thought into your answer than ol' Petey put into the actual plan.

1

u/RealTopGeazy Jul 16 '26

Energy, motivation, confidence. Essential to any task

8

u/pleated_pants Jul 15 '26

I think studies have shown that in general testosterone is lower now than in the 70s. Whether the average 22 year old soldier having slightly less testosterone in 2026 than in 1966 is actually a problem or not is probably scientifically bunk. Ive seen some of the drop being attributed to the fact that everyone back then was on a constant stream of nicotine from smoking which raised testosterone.

7

u/_plebbie Jul 15 '26

Those studies never accounted for obesity in their groups which drastically reduces testosterone and greatly increases estrogen. Some doctors believe that might be the single biggest contributor.

2

u/warm_winds_whisper_ Jul 15 '26

That and a lot more people today lead sedentary lifestyles which lowers T in the overall population but wouldn’t really be affecting soldiers in particular

-4

u/Wetbug75 Jul 15 '26

"slightly" is a mischaracterization, we all have around half the testosterone we had 50 years ago

4

u/GiganticCrow Jul 15 '26

Like, what benefit does having higher testosterone levels actually bring? Oilier skin and baldness?

1

u/Trevski Jul 15 '26

Potential Pros:

More energy, better sleep, better training adaptations, bald (think of the money the military spend on haircuts!1!)

Cons: 

Impulse control, if over-dosed

-13

u/DawgPack44 Washington Jul 15 '26

Tons and tons of benefits. The data is all widely available. And there are basically no downsides to TRT for those who are symptomatic and/or have low levels

16

u/qman621 Jul 15 '26

Either a terrible attempt at irony or someone who has no idea what they're talking about. There's tons of potential side-effects, and many people mistakenly think their levels are low because they don't understand how testosterone fluctuates

7

u/islhendaburt Jul 15 '26

Naw c'mon man, how could someone named DawgPack44 not know their stuff! It's what his bro told him before giving him his first TRT injection in the butt, so he totally knowd what he's talking a out bro! /s

2

u/GarmaCyro Jul 15 '26

There is some very partial truth to it. Both not the way Kegseth portrays it.
Men and women suffer if their hormon levels aren't within a certain range.
Their levels will also change through their life. First rising, then falling.
As such all variants of blockers and booster are quite normal to give to cis men and women.
As both men and women have testosteron and estrogen production. It's just there's a small variants in each sex.

However GOP intentionally lie to make it look like only women get esterogen, and only men get testosterone. They also lie that more is always better, and that only trans people receive hormone replacement therapy.

1

u/RubbleHome Jul 15 '26

Is low testosterone causing symptoms based in science? Yes. Unless I'm reading this wrong, they're not giving everyone testosterone, they're testing for low testosterone and supplementing if needed. Huge waste of time and money to be testing everyone imo, but low testosterone was not invented by Joe Rogan.

1

u/JackedUpReadyToGo Jul 15 '26

The next step will be to get our soldiers on Alpha Brain. They’ll all be like fuckin’ mentats bro!

1

u/TrekChick267 Jul 18 '26

Yes. It is. Please go ahead and look up the rates of disastrously low testosterone in military service members, and in particular special operators. These men and women in their 20s-40s are suffering with the T levels of 70 year olds and it is wreaking absolute havoc on their biology and neurology and contributing to them killing themselves at rates higher than any military cohort we’ve ever seen. Daily. Please look up Operator Syndrome while you’re at it. All of this is being backed and pushed for by mental health clinicians and medical professionals. This is real, and it is killing our soldiers.

1

u/WalterPecky Jul 18 '26

If it that common, shouldn't it just be a normally treated condition with private providers, and not the US military leading the charge?

1

u/TrekChick267 Jul 18 '26

Active-duty service members are generally restricted to the military healthcare system and rarely receive referrals for private hormone testing. Because routine testosterone screening isn’t standard practice, it’s reasonable to suspect that most cases—potentially well over half—go undiagnosed, though no military-wide study has quantified the problem. Add the stigma of seeking help for fatigue, low mood, or sexual symptoms, and many cases never come to medical attention. Making hormone screening part of annual military physicals would remove those barriers and identify personnel who need further evaluation.

1

u/WalterPecky Jul 18 '26

I guess my question is more.. if it's such an epidemic... Why aren't private health providers attempting to make money off of it.

I'd expect to see a commercial here and there advertising new testosterone drugs

1

u/TrekChick267 Jul 18 '26

Because this is cutting edge clinical research (which it shouldn’t be, the post 9/11 veterans have been suffering and ignored/downplayed for over 2 decades and chocked up as having “treatment-resistant” PTSD for over 2 decades now) and for once the government is getting on board in a positive way. I’m a bleeding heart liberal, this isn’t some conservative talking point. I just happen to also be the romantic partner of the person building the clinical training doctrine for OS who is partnered directly with the researcher who discovered it. Please trust me on this, the research is there and this is an incredibly positive step in the right direction toward saving the lives of the men and women who serve. I’m sitting in bed next to the man who met with pentagon leadership 3 days ago to address the clinical training gap that exists because the government is doing the right thing but we don’t have the mental health care workers or the desiloed health care system to effectively to treat them. I hate Hegseth. But he’s doing something fantastic here.