The Pentagon will test troops over 30 for testosterone, on Hegseth's orders
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered annual testosterone screening for service members aged 30 and over, with optional replacement therapy. He calls it a bet on 'lethality' — doctors have questions.
The Pentagon has decided the next frontier of military readiness is measured by the milligram. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, announced that all service members over 30 will get annual testosterone screening, folded into the periodic health assessment troops already complete every year.
What exactly did the Pentagon decide?
Screening becomes mandatory from age 30 as part of the annual check-up; younger troops can request the test voluntarily. Any treatment that follows — including testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT — is optional. Hegseth pitched the move as keeping troops on the “leading edge of lethality” and insisted it is not about artificial enhancement but about “restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities”. No start date has been announced; the department’s official statements are at war.gov.
Why is the policy controversial?
Three reasons. First, the politics: the Trump administration has been publicly promoting testosterone therapies, and the Pentagon’s move slots into that wider agenda. Second, the science: TRT is a legitimate clinical treatment for diagnosed deficiency, but broad use in healthy men divides doctors, with cardiovascular and fertility risks still debated. Third, the precedent: turning a hormone level into a military-readiness metric is new territory, and critics are asking what comes next.
Does any of this touch Portugal?
Not directly — Portugal’s armed forces have nothing similar on the table. But what the Pentagon does tends to echo across NATO forces, especially as Portugal steps up its own contribution to the Alliance and the US keeps up an increasingly assertive military agenda in the Middle East. When the world’s biggest military redefines what a “ready” soldier is, allies at least read the memo.
Whether testosterone is the new secret weapon remains to be seen. For now, it’s the latest front for an administration that likes to measure everything — including its generals.
Image: Chief Petty Officer James Mullen / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
