Pentagon rescinds new testosterone screening policy without explanation

tyleo

I don’t know much about this except that I know perfectly normal or even jacked men with lower than expected testosterone. I suspect messing with hormones based on the results of a test and no actual problems can unnecessarily alter mood. So my theory—based mostly on conjecture—is that these tests selected people they didn’t expect and the treatments would do more harm than good.

ungreased0675

I was very curious what the results were going to show.

bflesch

Is there even a US-based testosterone supply chain? Or was the idea to inject all their service members with a product from overseas that could have supply problems or subtle strategic "impurities"?

bob1029

> “Taking testosterone is not going to make you more manly, more strong, or a more robust individual. That’s just not how it works,” It will make you stronger. Perhaps not at certain therapeutic ranges, but there is a reason this would get you kicked out of the Olympic Games.

jrm4

"Without explanation" I mean, sure, it would probably be embarrassing to have to say "because this was extremely stupid and nonsensical and entirely due to the weird hangups of the present guy in charge."

greggsy

I had no idea this was a thing. It seems to edge us closer to the dystopian ‘super soldier gone wrong’ trope.

badgersnake

If we explained how dumb this was somebody would have to resign, so we’ll just sweep it under the carpet.

add-sub-mul-div

Stupid ideas is all they have yet they won't even stick with them?

quickthrowman

What’s next, force the troops to drink as much whiskey as the SecDef does on a daily basis? Most of them would die on the first day, after their BAC hits .3% at 3 PM, a double whiskey on the hour every hour hits the liver hard.

jmpman

I figured they were just trying to manipulate the elections. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12230349/

taybin

I’m surprised that reading The Game hasn’t been added to the annual trainings for soldiers and DoD civilians.

actionfromafar

But but ... how will they now win against iranian bears in hand to paw combat?

Steven420

Hopefully they figured out that they would be effectively castrating their military

jesse_dot_id

It's because it's incredibly stupid.

K0balt

So, was this some kind of trans witch hunt to weed out people who were transitioning? Or was it just a misguided attempt to name and shame men who weren’t “manly” enough? It’s hard to imagine it was actually an ill conceived measure aimed at supporting healthy testosterone levels, but I guess it isn’t impossible. I feel like maybe it was a cartoon inspired measure to create a super army of aggressive super soldiers? It’s got what plants crave? SMH

blipvert

They realised that gender affirming care is something that they were against?

jknoepfler

Why would it require explanation? It was stupid beyond belief to begin with. It would be like rescinding a policy profiling soldiers using phrenology or waving some scientology wand over them or something. The fact that people think there's anything even worthy of discussion on this is alarming to me.

ChiperSoft

I was very surprised the "we need more white babies" people were pushing a policy that lowers sperm count.

mrobot

the police told me that breakfast cereals started in Michigan boys homes before the prisons to control testosterone

fredley

Not that anyone needs any validation of how dumb this all is/was, but high testosterone levels don't necessarily mean you're going to be a burly muscly macho man. https://youtu.be/1162ouPHH3Q?si=ZAy5vo3loo0EfYbu&t=84