The Pentagon will test troops for low testosterone. It’s not as strange as it might seem
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on July 15 that the military will start screening service members for low testosterone, he framed it as a way to keep troops “strong, resilient, and capable.” Under the new plan, active-duty, National Guard, and Reserve members aged 30 and older will be tested annually as part of their health assessments, while younger troops can opt into testing.
Data suggests troops may support the idea: In a 2022 Hone Health survey of 400 veterans and active service members diagnosed with low testosterone, 86% said they thought the military should do testing to establish baseline hormone levels.
Medical guidelines generally advise against routine testosterone testing in the general male population, but service members are not an average-risk population. Military service exposes men to a combination of factors that are each independently linked to low testosterone.
"Military service creates a perfect storm for testosterone suppression," says Joshua Calvert, M.D., a urologist who routinely treats veterans in his Nashville practice. "These men aren't dealing with one risk factor. They're stacking chronic sleep deprivation, repeated physical stress, psychological stress, and sometimes brain injury — all of which can affect the hormone system."
The Pentagon’s new policy would raise awareness about testosterone levels while troops are serving — and could become even more valuable after discharge.
"If you want to understand how military service changes a man's body over time,” Calvert says, “testosterone is one of the most informative biomarkers we have."
Below, Hone Health explains the rationale behind testosterone screening of service members.
How Military Service Disrupts Testosterone
Testosterone production depends on a chain of signals between the brain, pituitary gland, and testes. Military service can strain or damage that system at several points.
Service members often experience strenuous training and prolonged stress — both common in military service — that can suppress testosterone. During acute stress, the body releases hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to prepare for a threat. When stress hormones remain elevated for long periods, as they may in a combat zone, they can trigger metabolic changes associated with a higher risk of low testosterone. The effects can appear surprisingly quickly: In one study of male paratrooper conscripts, testosterone fell 46% after just five days of intensive field training.
Sleep loss from long shifts, overnight operations, deployments, changing time zones, and hypervigilance compounds the problem. An estimated 60% of service members sleep fewer than six hours per night, meaning they may not get enough REM sleep, when testosterone production is at its highest. In one study, sleep restriction reduced men’s testosterone levels by roughly the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years.
Brain and testicular injuries can have a more direct effect. Blast exposure, concussions, and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) may damage the pituitary gland, which releases the hormones that signal the testes to produce testosterone. According to one study, as many as 80% of men with severe TBI experience low testosterone. Injured testes struggle to produce testosterone, Calvert says.
PTSD may add another layer. Nearly 30% of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have had PTSD at some point in life, according to data from the VA’s National Center for PTSD. The condition chronically elevates cortisol, which can suppress testosterone production. Research on combat veterans suggests that men who develop PTSD show lower testosterone than those who are exposed to the same combat stress but remain resilient.
What Happens After Discharge?
Some of the risk factors for low testosterone connected to military service can be temporary. Hormone levels suppressed during a period of intensive training, for example, may recover once the body has adequate rest and nutrition.
Other risk factors can persist. Traumatic brain injuries may permanently impair pituitary function. PTSD and disrupted sleep can continue for years. Severe testicular injuries may permanently reduce testosterone production, says Calvert.
That's where baseline testing becomes especially valuable.
Without an earlier measurement, physicians treating veterans for fatigue, depression, low libido, erectile dysfunction, or loss of muscle mass have no way to know whether today's hormone levels represent that person's lifelong norm — or a significant decline caused by years of military service. A testosterone measurement taken before or during service could provide an important point of comparison decades later.
"Veterans often spend years trying to figure out why they don't feel like themselves," Calvert says. "If we already know what their hormone levels looked like during service, that's one less piece of the puzzle physicians have to guess about."
The Pentagon has not yet detailed how abnormal results will be evaluated, whether testing histories will transfer into veterans’ medical records, or what follow-up will be available after separation.
Those details will determine whether the new program functions only as a readiness screen or becomes the beginning of a long-term health record that helps physicians understand how military service shapes men’s hormonal health.
This story was produced by Hone Health and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
