Pentagon abruptly pulls the rules for Pete Hegseth’s ‘High T’ testosterone-fueled military

The Pentagon spent nearly two months devising instructions to put Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “High-T” military into practice. The instructions lasted less than a day.

On Wednesday, the Defense Department published detailed clinical guidance for Hegseth’s mandate to screen service members for testosterone deficiencies and other hormonal conditions. By Thursday, the document and an accompanying statement had vanished from the Pentagon’s website.

Related: Judge in trans military ban case demands Pentagon explain Hegseth’s testosterone double standard

The guidance was “temporarily rescinded to allow for updates,” an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters. The official said interim guidance remained in effect.

What needs updating — and why the document was published before those changes were made — remains unclear. The Pentagon has not said when replacement guidance will appear. It also has not withdrawn Hegseth’s underlying order, leaving the politically charged program intact but its clinical operation uncertain.

Hegseth announced the initiative July 15 in a video titled “The High-T Department of War.” He ordered testosterone deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, presenting hormone therapy as an instrument of physical strength, longevity, and combat readiness.

“We owe our warriors the absolute best medical care in the world, and this program delivers on that obligation,” Hegseth said.

The detailed guidance offered the first clear account of what the program would mean inside military clinics. It also revealed that Hegseth’s sweeping order would become two markedly different systems for men and women.

Related: The Pentagon said transgender hormone care costs too much. Now Pete Hegseth wants testosterone boosts

Men age 30 and older would receive mandatory testosterone blood tests. Younger men could request testing or be tested when clinicians identified signs of a possible deficiency, according to Reuters.

Women would not receive routine testosterone blood tests. Instead, clinicians would screen them annually for fatigue, menstrual disruption and other possible signs of hormonal dysregulation or relative energy deficiency in sport, a condition that can develop when a person’s energy intake does not meet the demands of training and daily life.

The condition can contribute to bone injuries, disrupted endocrine function, and reduced physical performance. The guidance directed clinicians to address the underlying energy deficit through nutrition, reduced training, or both, Military Times reported.

The document also instructed providers to evaluate service members age 35 and older for symptoms of perimenopause and menopause when those symptoms affected military duties or quality of life.

Testosterone treatment for women would be considered only in a narrow circumstance for postmenopausal women experiencing an unusually low level of sexual desire. Such treatment would be off-label, closely monitored, and discontinued after six months without a demonstrated benefit.

The guidance itself acknowledged the limits of the hormone Hegseth has made a symbol of military vigor. It said available evidence did not demonstrate that testosterone treatment improved women’s psychological well-being, cognition, cardiovascular health, bone density or muscle performance.

Signed by Defense Health Agency Director Vice Adm. Darin Via, the document was supposed to take effect immediately and remain in force for one year unless reissued or canceled. The Pentagon instead removed it before many service members even knew it existed.

The reversal follows warnings from physicians that Hegseth’s mandate is built on a political idea about testosterone that medical evidence does not support. Broadly testing people without symptoms can lead to unnecessary treatment, doctors have said, and there is little evidence that universal screening will improve combat readiness.

Related: Pete Hegseth wants a testosterone-fueled military. The science doesn’t back the macho fantasy

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and a former senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, previously told The Advocate that testosterone is not a shortcut to strength or resilience.

“When someone has a real, clinically diagnosed testosterone deficiency, treatment can be meaningful,” Daskalakis said. “But routine population-wide screening of people without symptoms is not generally recommended by endocrine experts.”

Too much testosterone can increase red blood cell counts and the risk of clotting, suppress fertility and negatively affect mood, sleep and blood pressure, he said.

Hegseth’s program has also made the Trump administration’s selective reasoning about hormone care increasingly difficult to disguise. The Pentagon promotes testosterone treatment for service members it presumes to be cisgender as an investment in readiness. At the same time, it is removing transgender troops from the military and restricting their access to gender-affirming hormone care, which the administration has characterized as costly, burdensome and incompatible with service.

That contradiction has reached federal court. The Trump administration has argued that transgender troops may be excluded partly because they require continuing medical treatment. In July, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered government lawyers to explain how that claim could coexist with Hegseth’s plan to establish routine hormone screening and treatment for other troops. Last week, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in that case.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, identified the disparity when Hegseth first announced the program.

“This, by the way, is gender affirming care,” she said.