The Pentagon is now requiring every active-duty and reserve service member aged 30 and older — both men and women — to undergo annual screening for testosterone deficiency, a sweeping new mandate that reflects growing awareness of hormonal health in the military. The directive, ordered by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, aims to establish a comprehensive baseline across the force and allow military doctors to offer targeted testosterone therapy when medically appropriate. The policy affects hundreds of thousands of troops, though the Pentagon has not specified an exact number. According to 2023 demographic data, more than 451,000 active-duty service members were 31 or older, a figure that excludes 30-year-olds and reserve components. Roughly 82 percent of the active-duty force is male, but the directive applies to women as well.
The new protocol was shaped in part by veterans like Chad Robichaux, a former Marine force recon veteran who struggled with fatigue, irritability, depression, and a sense of doom after returning from Afghanistan. Robichaux told Fox News Digital that VA doctors prescribed antidepressants, but only after seeking independent blood testing did he discover his hormones were severely out of balance. Once he received treatment for his testosterone deficiency, he no longer needed the medication. «I felt like I knocked 10 to 15 years off the way I felt,» he said. His experience led him to campaign for years urging military and veterans' health providers to look for hormonal deficiencies in troops experiencing symptoms that can also signal mental health conditions.
Robichaux's advocacy brought together an unusual coalition of former special operators, members of Congress, physicians, and private hormone-treatment executives. Hours before Hegseth announced the screening requirement, Robichaux organized a forum in the Cannon House Office Building featuring veterans, lawmakers, and health executives. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., a former Navy SEAL, served as the congressional host. Crane said he first became aware of the issue around 2014, when other SEALs told him that doctors had detected low testosterone among members of the special operations community, attributing it to chronic stress, physical demands, and sleep deprivation. «I think this is a tremendous step forward for our men and women in the service, whether they're a part of special operations or not,» Crane said.
The Pentagon's new policy reflects a broader debate within medicine over whether symptoms such as fatigue, depression, and cognitive decline are too often treated with medication before physicians rule out underlying physiological causes, including hormonal disorders. Testosterone testing was available to service members before Hegseth's directive, but it was generally ordered only when a physician believed a patient's symptoms or medical history warranted it. It was not previously a required component of every annual periodic health assessment after age 30. Service members younger than 30 will be permitted to request the screening as part of their annual health assessment.
The directive does not yet explain how testosterone deficiency will be defined in women, for whom diagnostic and treatment standards are less established. It also remains unclear whether testosterone deficiency is more common among service members than among similarly aged civilians. The Pentagon has not published a force-wide prevalence estimate, and Hegseth described the new screening program as a way to establish a comprehensive baseline across the military. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Pentagon for more details. Robichaux, through his work with the Mighty Oaks Foundation, which provides faith-based programs for veterans and service members, said he encountered others reporting similar combinations of exhaustion, depression, and diminished physical performance. He emphasized that counseling and psychiatric treatment alone cannot address every underlying problem. «This shouldn't be like an either-or,» he said. «It should be an 'and.' We should bring them all together.»
