« Science should be getting the credit, not your silly god

Our troops will be getting gender-affirming care

Isn’t that sweet? Pete Hegseth is imposing mandatory testosterone testing, but is not requiring testosterone supplements, yet. As we all know, good soldiers are in a constant roid-rage, and can be recognized by their chronic bacne.

This policy is being enabled by the ongoing corruption of science by our government.

Hegseth’s announcement comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration officials are moving to make it easier for doctors to prescribe testosterone. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration proposed easing prescribing limits on testosterone gels, pills, patches and injections.
…
Last year, the FDA removed a boxed warning about possible risks of heart attack and stroke from the drugs.

Let’s ignore all our prior medical knowledge!

…current medical guidelines generally recommend against blanket testing of testosterone levels. Typically, doctors are advised to discuss testosterone therapy with men who have troubling symptoms and documented low levels of the hormone on two separate blood tests.

Testing for testosterone is challenging because levels of the hormone fluctuate throughout the day. Accurate testosterone readings are typically measured in the morning after fasting.

I have never been tested for my testosterone levels. I know that, for sure, they have almost certainly declined since my 20s, because that’s typical, but I have never experienced problems of the sort that might prompt testing. You can tolerate a wide range of variation without noticing any effects, so barring real symptoms, doping with T is just coping with diminished masculinity of a psychological sort.

But OK, let’s test everyone, new recruits and old generals, and let’s test men and women alike. Pete might be surprised when he discovers that trans men are already pumping themselves up with testosterone, maybe making them better soldiers than AMAB men.

Don’t bother testing Pete, though. He’s so insecure that he’s probably taking testosterone supplements already. Also, he’s a pig, scarcely human.

Hegseth has previously said he does not believe women should hold combat roles and that those positions should be based on the “highest male standard.” He has blocked some military promotions for women or fired female leaders since becoming Pentagon leader.

That alone warrants firing him.

« Science should be getting the credit, not your silly god

Comments

  1. bwells says

    There are so many interferences and variables with testosterone testing in cis men… heterophilic antibodies, fatty liver, high sex hormone binding globular, daily fluctuations, ejaculation frequency, T2DM… that it’s essentially useless to monitor unless there is some underlying pathophysiology. Supplements will also make the good ol’ gonads smaller too.

    Someone should tell Hegseth that if he wants big balls, supplements are the complete opposite of what should be done. Although it does explain a lot with him…

  2. says

    So, then, the East German track and field teams of the 1980s should be on recruiting posters, right? Oh, wait, many of them were women so they’re not appropriate role models even for this distorted vision of what makes for “good soldierin’.” And long-term side effects? We’ll just exclude those from the future VA budget by denying service connection, since making up for one’s “organic inadequacies” is not related to military service, right?

    One wonders if there’s going to be a sudden rise in “chemically-sophisticated fitness consultants” right outside base main gates.

  4. says

    Wait, on second thought, lets have all pigsbreath’s ‘war fighters’ load up on supplements and steroids. Maybe, then, we can test whether or not they really do cause heart attack and stroke! OOH, sciencey!

  5. robro says

    I suspect this is a further step in Hegseth’s program of removing women from the military, particularly from combat and command positions, and building a corps of male pigs who will dutifully do the bidding of the fascist leaders.

    Perhaps they do, but I’m surprised they aren’t prominently citing the Israeli meta-analysis that was just released indicating that male testosterone levels have declined 54% in the last 50 years.

  6. Pierce R. Butler says

    Reportedly, the most commonly performed gender-affirming surgery is treatment of gynecomastia.

    Will Hegseth release figures on occurrence of enlarged male breast tissue in our troops and veterans? Or will such stats be kept Top Secret!!! to protect US national insecurity?

  8. larpar says

    The Commander in Chief’s test results are in. Highest testosterone level ever. The doctors were amazed. Never seen anything like it. Big burly men were coming up to Trump with tears in their eyes saying “Sir, I wish I had your T levels”.

  9. says

    Does Kegsbreath know T is a treatment for sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women? Someone should really let him know its a girly drug known to spread girl cooties.

    Also, you gotta stop insulting pigs. They are way smarter and more fun than these walking billboards for toxic masculinity. Insult squirrels instead. :D

  10. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    From the OP article:

    When asked what conditions Hegseth was looking to address with the new policy, the Pentagon referred to Hegseth’s remarks in the video that mentioned keeping troops “strong, resilient and capable” and that the rigors of the modern battlefield demand “maximum psychological and mental readiness.”
    […]
    a series of studies by the National Institutes of Health in older men found that taking testosterone improved erectile dysfunction, libido and other sexual measures and had a small effect on mood. But there was little or no improvement in other measures like fatigue, memory or overall well-being.

    Cheryl Rofer: “Along with all the other things wrong with this, it’s a mistaken understanding of the function of testosterone in human bodies. A quicker fix to what he seems to want would be amphetamines, something that previous rulers discovered.”

  11. nomadiq says

    Wait, does everyone have the same sensitivity to testosterone as each other, rendering circulating T levels a proper measure of what ever Kegsbreath thinks T should be doing for soldiers? Or can soldier A be significantly higher in T than soldier B, but soldier B be more androgenated due to higher levels of receptors or stronger signaling pathways? Or am I just being too much of a scientist for these ‘alpha men’?

  12. says

    @9 Iris Vander Pluym said, ‘you gotta stop insulting pigs. They are way smarter and more fun than these walking billboards for toxic masculinity. Insult squirrels instead’

    I reply: you are absolutely correct about pigs’ intelligence putting the sec. of war to shame. His name just fit the parody so well, I used it. I need to find a silly animal for his parody name. But, I’m a fan of Rock the Flying Squirrel, so that’s out. Maybe, horrid hedgehog hegseth or poisonous peter parrot. I’ll work on finding a better name ‘in my spare time’, right after I load up on testosterone boosting supplements. That should help me find a better name.

  13. says

    That should help me find a better name.

    I’m fond of Kegsbreath, but I worry about insulting innocent alcoholics who are just trying to recover control and sobriety.

  16. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    nomadiq @11:

    Wait, does everyone have the same sensitivity to testosterone as each other

    (These are from the trans women in sports discourse circa 2019 I had bookmarked.)
     
    [YT video] The Bad Science Behind the Caster Semenya Ruling (8:49)

    We know that large doses of exogenous testosterone can aid muscle growth in cases such as doping. […] it does not necessarily follow that reading off a single number, serum testosterone, is a valid measure of somebody’s ability to benefit from it. […] Having more testosterone isn’t helpful if you have high testosterone because your body isn’t very sensitive to it. Studies have not generally found a clear relationship between T level and performance. For example, one study of male athletes found that many have unusually low testosterone, especially powerlifters.

    [Twitter thread] Dr Veronica Ivy (Trans cyclist, philosopher):

    There is no relationship between unaltered endogenous testosterone and sport performance. None. […] Also, there’s complete overlap of testosterone values for cis males and cis females. In statistics, ‘complete overlap’ means, in this case, that the BOTTOM of the male range is the same as the BOTTOM of the female range (near 0), but the TOP of the female range doesn’t quite extend to the TOP of the male range.

    And guess what! Low testosterone elite men are statistically OVERrepresented in elite male sport. 0.5% of ELITE male athletes were naturally below the average for cis female athletes. And 25% of ELITE cis male athletes are below the current 10nmol/L cutoff for female athletes.

    Who cares?! Wait! This means that for ANY TESTOSTERONE POLICY you pick to exclude ‘men’ from women’s sport WILL. NOT. WORK. There will always be some elite cis males naturally below that level. It turns out that unaltered endogenous testosterone is a TERRIBLE way to separate men from women.

  17. says

    Or, maybe, testing for estrogen levels would be more appropriate:

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/12/how-to-build-an-elite-servicewoman-british-military-top-scientists-look-to-unleash-oestrogen-advantage

    Oh, wait, that assumes that women are going to remain in the military. Never mind; we can just do without the fired Chief of Naval Operations who achieved her rank by being measured against all of those more-warrior-like men, and everyone like her. We’ll just ignore that women handle high G-forces better than men do, in particular in recovery from any vision greyout. And, of course, this is just the first step; right after absence of a Y chromosome will come absence of a cross on a pendant, followed by exclusion of those who have excessive melanin levels…

  18. seversky says

    Does anyone else hear echoes of white, Aryan ubermensch>/i> in Hegseth’s plans. Goes with his tattoos, I suppose, along with his cartoonish Rambo concept of what makes a good soldier.

  19. John Morales says

    So simple a test to pass; take a dose the day before the test.
    Instant macho!

  20. seversky says

    I wonder if Hegseth has any shares in those companies that market testosterone-boosting supplements,

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