One day perhaps Pete Hegseth will make the news for doing something worthwhile, something that makes his mother proud. One day perhaps we’ll see a headline about the defense secretary that doesn’t involve allegations of sexual misconduct or bigotry, claims about past drinking on the job, possible war crimes, Christian nationalism, or his weird fixation on male facial hair.
Alas, today is not that day. Rather, we are gathered here today because Hegseth is very het up about testosterone. On Wednesday, the defense secretary proudly announced a new screening program for “war fighters” 30 and older that would ensure they had the “right testosterone levels”. In a video posted on X, captioned “the High-T Department of War”, Hegseth explains: “By addressing these health markers early, we’re keeping you on the leading edge of lethality.”
Who exactly is “you”? Does this policy include women? The video doesn’t spell this out, but the New York Times said in its reporting that women would also be screened for testosterone. While the details of this new policy are fuzzy, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hegseth, who has made his disdain for women in the military clear, used low testosterone as an excuse to purge women from his so-called High T Department of War. Hegseth used to categorically oppose women in combat roles but reversed that position during the defense secretary confirmation process – possibly because the senators voting on his nomination urged him to do so. Nevertheless, he still seems opposed to elevating women and minorities and recently blocked the promotions of seven senior navy officers, five of whom are women or people of color, to two-star admiral rank. The New York Times notes: “The highly unusual move means that for the first time in more than a decade, no female active-duty naval officers are likely to be promoted to admiral this year.”
So what happens if a service member is found to have levels of testosterone which Hegseth considers suboptimal? Again: the full details haven’t been disclosed. However, in his little video, Hegseth explains that the government will offer opt-in testosterone replacement therapy. There isn’t an FDA-approved testosterone treatment for women, so presumably this treatment would just be for men. Some might call it gender-affirming care.
In the past, the Trump administration has been leery about spending money on hormones for military troops. The president has been doing his best to try to ban transgender people from the military, with one argument being that providing gender-affirming care to troops is too expensive. It’s unclear how much money Hegseth’s new testosterone policy is going to cost, but I’m sure they’ll be able to find the money without any problem. After all, the defense department spends about 10 times as much money on Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications than it spends on healthcare services for transgender troops. There’s always money for a certain sort of gender-affirming care.
And of course there’s always money for war. Hegseth’s testosterone-screening announcement would be eyebrow-raising at any point in time, but it’s particularly ludicrous right now, given the escalating war with Iran. On the same day that Hegseth made his testosterone announcement, Iran threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East as the US reimposed a blockade on Iran, and Trump warned he would escalate strikes on the country. This unnecessary and unlawful war – which has no end in sight and already cost tens of billions – is making life more expensive and more dangerous for everyone. Doesn’t Hegseth have rather more important things on his plate than testosterone screening policies?
Of course he does. But whether he is capable of delivering on those rather more important things is a different story. Hegseth can pump himself and his troops with as many hormones as he likes, but absolutely nothing is going to make the former Fox News host qualified for his job as defense secretary. As I think he might be realizing, geopolitics is difficult. Military strategy is difficult. Diplomacy is difficult. Rampaging around screaming about “beardos” and trying to butter up your testosterone-obsessed manosphere fans with videos about hormone screenings, however, is easy. Forget screening troops for testosterone; the US should be screening its defense secretary for basic competence.
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Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
