MS
NOW - After nearly 250 years of testing its troops’
strength, endurance and marksmanship, the U.S. military is starting to test
their testosterone.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says it will give them “the
biological foundation required to sustain the fight,” brushing off concerns
from current and former service members — including an ex-Army surgeon general
— that the initiative rests on shaky science.
Some veterans fear the new mandatory screening could
threaten troops’ fertility and careers, tying some of them to lifelong
injections the Department of Veterans Affairs is not guaranteed to continue
covering.
Under a program Hegseth announced in July, service members
30 and older will be screened each year for testosterone deficiency during
their routine health assessments. Those found to have low levels will be
offered hormone therapy.
Hegseth said treatment would be voluntary, though the
Pentagon has not said whether troops who refuse recommended treatment would
face consequences.
“We are building a High-T department focused on strength,
performance, lethality,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote on
X in mid-September, echoing language used in podcasts and other forums with a
recent focus on the definition of masculinity.
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