Hegseth said testing would be accompanied by advice to help soldiers make decisions about treatment, which would be voluntary.

The goals, he added, are to ensure troops have the right testosterone levels to operate at their absolute best and to improve their resilience, longevity and performance, so as to ensure the military’s combat readiness.

Four of the six doctors said there was no solid evidence suggesting that screening for low testosterone in all military personnel aged 30 and older would optimize US readiness for combat.

“We hear from patients that when you treat low T, things like cognitive alertness and stamina improve. But the evidence is not concrete, and it comes from patients who were treated because they were symptomatic,” said Dr Kevin McVary, a urologist on the medical advisory board of Rugiet, a telehealth platform that provides testosterone supplements.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter beyond its brief official statement.
Testing recommended for symptoms

The American Urological Association and the Endocrine Society advise testosterone supplementation only for patients with confirmed testosterone deficiency and symptoms such as reduced libido, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, decreased muscle mass and low bone density.

Giving testosterone without medical symptoms leads to overtreatment, McVary said, which can have its own adverse consequences.

Levels naturally decline with age, starting around age 30. But age 30 itself is not an appropriate point for screening, said Dr Haleem Mohammed, chief medical officer of Gameday Health, a men’s wellness and medical clinic network.

“There is a population-level decline of 1% per year after ages 30-40 that accelerates as you get older,” but the patterns are not the same for all, Mohammed said.

Most studies of testosterone replacement have been done in older men, noted Dr Ugis Gruntmanis, an endocrinologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock medical center, who said the new mandate provides an opportunity to collect data on younger men.

He added, however, that widespread implementation of screening without preliminary study data would be putting the carriage before the horse.
FDA lifted warning

Based partly on a study led by Dr Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, involving more than 5,200 men aged 45 to 80 with low testosterone and high risk of heart disease, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised testosterone labels to remove a warning of increased risks of heart attack or stroke. The participants, however, showed higher rates of atrial arrhythmia – an abnormal heart rhythm – and bone fractures, a finding that may have implications for the military, Nissen said.

All of the experts contacted by Reuters also mentioned the severe impact of testosterone therapy on male fertility.

“Many in our armed forces are young men who are not done having their families,” McVary said. “If you just dole out the testosterone, the testes will shrink. And you can’t reliably count on them coming back.”

Other risks include blood thickening, prostate issues, acne, hair loss, breast tissue growth and mood volatility.

In his announcement, Hegseth said one objective for the new screening mandate is to comprehensively address operator syndrome, which afflicts special forces such as Delta Force members and Navy Seals and includes low testosterone along with traumatic brain injury, hormonal and metabolic dysregulation, sleep dysregulation and other maladies.

But special forces operators are not representative of all active duty and reserve members, said Dr B Christopher Frueh of the University of Hawaii, whose team first described the syndrome in 2020.

“These operators are at an extreme end of a spectrum,” Frueh said. “They have much higher exposures to blasts, airplane jumps, firing all kinds of different weapons, shoulder-fired rockets, machine guns.”

Other soldiers might have elements of the syndrome, he said, “but should we be screening 100% of everybody? Maybe. I don’t know.”

He believes many younger soldiers could regulate hormones through sleep, rest and diet to bring testosterone levels back up, rather than turning to replacement therapy.
Weight and low testosterone

Still, medical professionals emphasize potential benefits from appropriate testosterone testing, as with other forms of medical tests.

Gameday Health’s Mohammed said military reservists in the general population may be overweight, another correctable factor that can contribute to low testosterone.

“Testosterone is one of the most useful blood tests we have to gauge health in men,” Mohammed said. “Broader screening would identify many men with reversible causes and some with true deficiency. Both groups would benefit from clinician-guided care, whether that means correcting reversible causes or starting treatment when it is truly warranted.“

The Pentagon has not provided detailed guidance on how abnormal test results will be evaluated or whether screenings will apply equally to men and women.

Frueh of the University of Hawaii said broad screening could also reveal new information about female soldiers’ hormones.

“Females aren’t going to need testosterone replacement in all likelihood, but they may need other hormonal interventions,” he said.

>>1524363
>widespread implementation of screening without preliminary study data
The screening creates study data. If anything the military should have very good numbers for testosterone due to the good health and fitness and young age.

These are people who exercise and aren't fat. They are the most healthy of the US population.

>>1524361
>Five of six men’s health experts contacted by Reuters for this story said they were puzzled by the announcement on testosterone testing and concerned it may lead to unnecessary – or even harmful – treatment.
Well, apparently you can't trust doctors as the army will need them to prescribe anything. So what's the point of asking these untrustworthy doctors to create a compelling nothingburger argument?

And remember, folks, the opposition wants free castration for military troons.

>>1524370
i can't wait until all of you weird faggots are court martialed

>>1524361
These people are so fucking embarrassing. An entire administration full of man-children.

>>1524367
none of your statements are true.

>>1524367
The military is mostly fat browns with no prospects anymore. Been this way for quite some time.

I really think Kegseth should have to undergo these treatments, but even then he won't ever understand the full scope of what he's doing. He thinks testosterone is magic and will turn our boys into superman.
The reality is supplementing with testosterone will make your natural production decline. Meaning it won't have the desired effect off the field because that's not how hormones work.
ON the field? When you are sometimes fighting for days, and don't have access to your fucking meds? Can you imagine being locked in the middle of a firefight, not having your T patch or pills, and feeling a wave of the estrogen you're making in higher amounts to offset the extra Testosterone wash over you, making you want to break down in a crying fit?

How deliciously fucking ironic kegseth wants to ban troons and give men testosterone to make them tough, and will end up turning them into giant pussies instead. This is why we take medical advice from doctors, not whatever lush can suck the president's cock the best.

>>1524370
Do you want to try that again in English?

>>1524408
Don't worry, rape daddy keeps trying to start wars of aggression across multiple fronts, at this rate eventually he'll start drafting blonde haired blue eyed kids to go die on your behalf instead.

>sex hormones for you, you, and you!
why are the trt trannies like this? lol explains a lot about hegseth. I wouldn't be surprised if 80% of the "men" in Trump's orbit are actually these trannies in disguise.

What? You're trying to tell me the administration that's taken all of their decisions based on vibes and a seemingly childish understanding of the world is full of shit on this one aswell?

the SWG(secret world government) has created a derivative of Bisphenols to reduce the testosterone in men worldwide.
these chemicals are released into water supplies and through airplane contrails.
capitalists finally realized that their system would collapse and eat itself, so reduce the population not consumption

these controllers don't want more people they just want more control over the people that exist now

The ultra Rich know about this, and are taking pills to counteract the effects and obviously they don't drink the water.

MAGA politicians have not been let in on the conspiracy

>>1524414
>he'll start drafting blonde haired blue eyed kids to go die on your behalf instead.
No, esl shill is already a fat brown with no prospects
They just need to get into America so they can get free gender affirming treatment

>>1524414
You know what? Maybe he is. Maybe he sees value in it because of lived experience and not whatever monstrous horseshit your insane little brain, like an AP reported, attributes to your opposition as always having the worst intentions.

>>1524455
God you're esl

>>1524455
>lived experience
Kegbreath being a troon makes sense
no wonder they're an alcoholic

>>1524455
This isn't about his intentions. His intentions are to help the military by injecting them with a hormone that makes you develop male sex traits and regulates hormone activity. Taking him at his word, his intentions are good, he's just a fucking moron who doesn't understand medical science, so it objectively will not have the outcome he wants, (already gave an example of how that could go disasterously wrong you won't address), meaning his intentions are irrelevant.


I don't know how you walked away with me attacking his intentions from that, guess you thought that was the best way to deflect. You must really struggle with reading comprehension.

>>1524467
>Doesn't understand medical science
I didn't know he'd be the prescribing doctor.
Perhaps you're simply looking for shit to rage over?

>>1524479
there's some foreign retard on this board who pretends to rage about trannys all the time to disguise a pretty obvious fetish
just don't engage with them

>>1524480
You're probably a troon, and I purposely ignored that refucktardo's horseshit.

>>1524484
the world must be so confusing for you when you're off your meds like this

Gotta love that the leader of one of the largest and most well funded militaries in the world has a Joe Rogan podcast listener levels of understanding of everything

>>1524479
Well, considering the doctors are all telling him he's a fuckwit, maybe you're right, maybe he's just an incompetent imbecile wasting everyone's time with a nothing burger and providing optional gender affirming care to our cis male troops.

So um...that's... b-better? I love when people at the highest level of government leading the former most powerful fighting force in world history are completely retarded.

>>1524546
>5 out of 6 doctors on the AP's speed dial
Fake ass survey.

>>1524598
Are you saying most doctors wouldn't question the War Department's testosterone quackery?

>>1524646
don't bully esl shill, just let them support their gender affirming tranny medicine like they like

>>1524646
Well, most doctors didn't question the trannies' quackery, I'm not sure why they'd start questioning now.

>>1524651
>I'm not sure why they'd start questioning now.
You're just going to admit that the right was lying about trannys this whole time like that?

>>1524652
Its the trannies that were lying, but thankfully lying isn't a crime, so doctors can afford to jump in on that grift as long as government is willing to support it. Mutilating people for any reason, chemically or physically, should never be allowed under any administration no matter what people want. The faggots are just going to have to figure out a way to cope.

>>1524655
>The faggots are just going to have to figure out a way to cope.
Fuck off shill, you're talking about American Warriors
Go live in Iran if you want to hate America

>>1524651
>I'm hate filled bigot against the advice of the entire human body of medical knowledge. I somehow am aware of this, but don't see the issue.

It should be legal to kill people as dumb as this.

>>1524672
>against the advice
Doctors like people like (You) because you need constant post-op care to maintain your transition, which means more money for them.
Enjoy your infertility you dumb faggot. You could've just been gay but instead you pretended to be an anime character in the vain hope that people would accept you.

>>1524678
No, this is Kegbreath doing this to the US military
This isn't your last night on grindr
You're the only tranny in this thread

>>1524678
>I assume everyone else is a faggot because I'm a faggot. I assume faggots are insufferable because I'm an insufferable faggot.

Not everybody who supports trans people are trans or gay, some of us just listen to literally every major medical organization in the world and accept the entire body of human medical knowledge claiming Gender affirming care has value and saves lives.

If anyone's a faggot it's you. Normal people aren't obsessed with other people's genitals like this. If you hate gay people so much, you should contribute to their high suicide rate and kill yourself.

>>1524386
This is what happens when you let a bunch of people who think the government should be run like a WWE show.

>>1524723
>“Castrating myself and molding my genitalia into a worthless mockery of the real thing is fine because (insert ‘expert’ name here) said so!”

Only dumb faggots are stupid enough to believe this kind of shit. If they're such experts, they why can't the convince you on the merit of their great ideas instead of the title of being an expert?

Don’t worry guys, Hesgeth is going all hands on this issue
https://thehardtimes.net/breaking/hegseth-to-personally-test-erection-strength-of-each-soldier/