The Testosterone Trap

The U.S. will start testing its troops for levels of a sex hormone. What could go wrong?

“An Army travels on its stomach,” as Napoleon Bonaparte is often quoted, though historians say another military leader, Germany’s Frederic the Great, made the observation decades earlier. They were referring to the historical fact that military success depends not just on strategy, terrain and troop numbers, but also on keeping those soldiers properly fed.

To the canon of military wisdom we must now add an utterance by U.S. Secretary of War (formerly Defense) Pete Hegseth. As he declared in a video message to his troops last week, battlefield success depends on “ensuring that you have the biological ability to sustain the fight.” To that end, Hegseth said, he was ordering every active-duty U.S. service member over age 30, male or female, to undergo a test measuring levels of testosterone, or “T,” a common sex hormone.

Those who score low – Hegseth didn’t mention a number — anywhere between 300 and 1,000 nanograms per deciliter is considered normal — would be asked to undergo a drug regimen known as testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). Treatment would be voluntary, as would testing for troops over 30. In the military, however, declining recommendations from superiors can be hazardous to a career.

Hegseth’s new policy appears reasonable enough. Testosterone is a naturally occurring substance produced in both male and female sex organs. It is known to promote such militaristic qualities as strength, stamina and aggressiveness, especially in males. Testosterone levels for both sexes normally start declining after the age of 30.

Moreover, several studies have suggested that amounts of the hormone in young men have declined in recent years. Researchers cite such contributing factors as obesity, chronic illness and exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

The current administration appears to have a thing for testosterone. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in January that “Dr. Oz,” the TV-personality-turned-health-official, examined Donald Trump’s medical records and declared that the President has “the highest testosterone level he’s ever seen for an individual over 70 years old.” (Trump, now 80, did not demur.) Kennedy himself, a model of well-muscled fitness at age 72, says he has taken testosterone supplements for years and wants to ease regulatory limits on their use for variety of health concerns.

Meanwhile, the Trump era has accompanied the rise of the “manosphere,” a web of blogs, podcasts and other forums focused on reversing a perceived decline of masculinity in the U.S. Many adherents blame the advance of feminism for their plight. The manosphere crowd includes men’s rights activists, involuntary male celibates (known as “incels”) and outright misogynists. Converts to the movement are said by adherents to have “taken the red pill,” a term borrowed from the violent 1999 science-fiction thriller “The Matrix.”

On the movement’s fringes is a growing subculture of young men obsessed with fitness and musculature. That could be a healthy pursuit, if it didn’t so often lead to the use of hormone supplements like testosterone and its synthetic variations.

In reality, testosterone is not quite as terrific as Trump, Kennedy and other fans seem to think. Though it can enhance strength and fitness in many people, in others it has little effect. That latter group includes women, whose presence in the military Hegseth has been working to reduce. Regular consumption of T can also cause mood swings, hair loss, acne, and — in older men and others who take it for extended periods — increased risk of bone fractures, cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer. Testosterone has also been linked statistically to criminal behavior, spousal abuse and, no doubt, bar fights.

Meanwhile, military success nowadays depends not so much on the strength of individual troops as on the power of technology. Warfare has become more mechanized, digitized and, coming soon, artificially intelligent. The soldier of the future will need strong computer skills instead of large biceps, brains more than brawn. Soldiers hopped up on hormones may prove less effective than those with cool heads and deft hand-eye coordination. In that new world, testosterone could be a distraction and, to some users, a personal tragedy.

Ironically, a policy intended to strengthen America’s military may well undermine one of the nation’s greatest long-term strategic assets: a growing and productive population. Too much testosterone can suppress the production of sperm, reducing fertility in some users. Yes, taking T can actually hinder the ability of males to exercise that most manly of tasks: ensuring the continuity of the human species — and their own genes — by reproducing.

A nation’s prosperity and influence in the world will, increasingly, depend not as much on the fitness of individual soldiers as on the size of its population and economy, both of which are required to support an effective military. The U.S. will need, for generations to come, enough people to fill jobs, buy goods and ensure that prosperity endures.

Put simply, military might will not be enhanced by adding testosterone to the nation’s arsenal. And America’s long-term strategic position cannot be sustained if an entire generation of its young men — soldiers and civilians — are firing blanks.