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In July 2026, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced testosterone screening for U.S. troops, along with replacement therapy.
Rating:A rumor that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would have testosterone screening and replacement therapy to make them "better fighters" spread on social media in July 2026.
Several posts on X shared the claim, with one of them (archived) saying, "Pete Hegseth announces he is authorizing a program to make Testosterone available to our troops to make them better war fighters."
Further, reputable news outlets such as Reuters and The New York Times relayed the story. Snopes readers searched the site for information and sent emails asking whether Hegseth had really said that.
The rumor was true. On July 15, 2026, Hegseth announced, in a video and a memorandum, mandatory testosterone-level screening for troops, saying that replacement therapy, when recommended, would be optional.
Hegseth did not appear to make an exception for women in either the video or the memo. "Everyone over 30 years old will be tested annually," an official at the Department of Defense told Snopes in an email.
Hegseth made the announcement in a video titled "The High T Department of War" on the Defense Department's YouTube channel:
In the video, Hegseth refers to troops as "elite warriors" and goes on to explain that the goal of testosterone screening and replacement therapy is to allow them to "sustain the fight" (emphasis ours):
I'm authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best, because it's well-established science that as we age, testosterone levels often naturally drop.
[…]
This initiative, it's not about artificial enhancement; it's about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.
The memo indicated the screening would be mandatory for service members 30 or older and optional for younger personnel:
Effective immediately, all Active Duty and Reserve Component personnel aged thirty and older will be screened for testosterone deficiency as a mandatory element of their Periodic Health Assessment (PHA). Service members under the age of thirty may also request this screening during their PHA.
This measure will help to optimize "Warfighter readiness," according to the memo.
There was no apparent exception for women. While women do produce testosterone, their levels are much lower than men's. It is true that testosterone deficiency in women can also cause health issues, including fatigue, brain fog and muscle and bone loss.
For further reading, Snopes examined the claim that the portrait of the first Black four-star general had been removed from exhibition in the Pentagon.
