Pentagon Temporarily Rescinds Mandatory Testosterone Screening One Day After Issuing Guidance

The Pentagon has temporarily rescinded the mandatory testosterone-screening guidance it issued just a day earlier, removing the document from its website while saying interim guidance remains in effect.

Posted Wednesday by the Defense Health Agency, the clinical guidance had made a testosterone blood test a required part of the annual health assessment for service members. But by Thursday, the memo and an accompanying statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had been taken down. Links to both the Pentagon and Defense Health Agency websites returned a “Page Not Found” message.

A U.S. official told Reuters that “the draft (document) published on Sept. 2, 2026, has been temporarily rescinded to allow for updates,” adding that interim guidance remains in place.

The official’s description of the document as just a draft recasts the rollout presented a day earlier as policy taking effect immediately.

What the Guidance Had Required

The document that was pulled had laid out mandatory testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve members age 30 and older, according to Reuters.

For men 30 and older, the test was to be a required element of the yearly Periodic Health Assessment, beginning with a questionnaire that could trigger a blood test and, if warranted, hormone therapy.

Men younger than 30 would be tested only on request or if a clinician identified warning signs, and female service members would undergo separate hormone-related screenings.

Officials had described the effort as a way to improve readiness by identifying and managing hormonal and energy-availability problems that can affect strength and endurance.

They also noted that the guidelines required confirmatory testing and alignment with a member’s symptoms before any hormone therapy would be approved.

The Criticism It Drew

The now-withdrawn guidance had drawn immediate objections from medical experts.

In a statement issued in July, the Endocrine Society said there is “insufficient evidence to support a general recommendation to perform population-level screening for hypogonadism in asymptomatic men” through blood testing.

They also said symptoms such as low energy and reduced libido are common in aging men, stem from many causes, and are not enough on their own to diagnose a deficiency.

The Endocrine Society cautioned that terms like “age-related” low testosterone “blur the line between treatable disease and normal aging,” and urged doctors to rule out reversible causes—such as obesity—first.

Credit: U.S. Secretary of Defense, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Physicians have also noted that testosterone therapy suppresses the body’s own production of the hormone, an effect that can make treatment difficult to stop once begun and can impair fertility. This has been one reason doctors have been cautious about starting patients who do not clearly need it.

This also arrived about two weeks before the Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to convene a panel of experts on Sept. 17 to examine the medical use of testosterone.

Beyond the medical objections, the policy drew political criticism as well.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Air Force veteran, questioned the cost and the motive.

“I’m sure the testosterone industry is thrilled,” she wrote on X. “Taxpayers should ask who benefits.”

The Pentagon did not say what prompted the reversal beyond the need to make updates, and it did not tie the decision to criticism.