Medical professionals have torn into Donald Trump’s defense secretary for his plans to test military personnel’s testosterone and offer hormone replacement therapy to those with low levels.
Pete Hegseth announced his latest proposals on X on Wednesday. “We must constantly look for new ways to optimize your performance, your resilience, and your long-term health,” Hegseth, 46, told servicemembers in an X video captioned, “The High-T Department of War.”
But medical experts are not convinced by the science behind the policy.
Stuart Phillips, a medical professor at McMaster University, told The Washington Post on Thursday that testosterone is normally prescribed only for people with unusually low levels of testosterone.
“[A blanket policy like] we’re going to screen everybody over the age of 30, is kind of a ridiculous notion,” Phillips told the Post, adding his voice to a chorus of doctors who have slammed Hegseth’s scheme.
Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University professor of pharmacology and physiology, warned in comments to the Post that Hegseth’s claims are “non-evidence-based and could cause harm.”
Adrian Dobs, a specialist on TRT and Johns Hopkins University professor of medicine, agreed, adding that levels can vary widely between men. “The normal testosterone levels can be, usually people would say between 300 and 800 [nanograms per deciliter],” she said. “So it doesn’t mean that the person who’s 700 is any better or stronger or smarter than the person that’s 300.”
Hegseth, who has overseen a macho-macho rebrand of the department as Pentagon chief, is not the only member of the Trump administration fixated on the claim that boosting testosterone can enhance fitness and physical health.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 72, has publicly acknowledged using testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and has repeatedly claimed levels among young men are plummeting.
Kennedy’s Assistant Secretary Brian Christine, 61, a doctor specializing in men’s sexual health who previously hosted a YouTube show called Erection Connection, has amplified those claims. Vice President JD Vance, 41, and former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, AGE, have also spoken about the topic in the past.
“This initiative, it’s not about artificial enhancement,” Hegseth said in his Wednesday post. “It’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity.”
But Fugh-Berman cautioned about the accuracy of any mandated tests. “There’s a wide range of testosterone levels at every age, and they vary hourly, daily, weekly, and seasonally,” she said. “Testosterone levels go up if you hold a gun; they go down if you hold a baby.”
The defense secretary’s video also sparked instant alarm over how exactly it may affect female troops, given what critics have slammed as a push to eliminate women soldiers from combat roles under his leadership.
A former soldier told the Post that Hegseth’s proposal to screen troops for low testosterone wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, “but likely not something the whole military needs.”
“Even within these Special Operations units, you don’t need meatheads all the time,” the person said. “You need some people who will run through a wall, and some people who can stand back and observe things objectively.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment on this story.
