Hegseth's Low-T Screening Could Flag a Quarter of the Army

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to screen service members for low testosterone could flag as many as 25 percent of the Army, a projection that has drawn sharp caution from medical experts. The objection is less about whether low testosterone exists than about how widely the test would be applied.

Physicians generally advise against routine, blanket screening of healthy people for low testosterone. Hormone levels shift over the course of a day and change with age, illness, poor sleep, and stress, so a single reading can mislead. Major endocrine guidance typically recommends testing only when a man has symptoms such as persistent fatigue, reduced sex drive, or loss of muscle mass, and then confirming any low result with repeat morning blood draws. Applied to a large population that is mostly young and physically fit, broad screening would be expected to produce a high number of false positives.

That matters for the military because a flagged result could lead to follow-up care or treatment, and decisions about medical treatment in the armed forces can carry consequences for fitness standards, deployability, and career paths. A test that misidentifies a large share of soldiers would put people through that process without a clear health benefit.

The summary available for this story does not explain how the screening would be carried out, who would be tested, or what follow-up the Army would require after a positive result. Those details will determine how many service members are actually affected, and they are the questions medical experts are likely to press as the policy takes shape.