Hegseth's High-T rules lasted less than a day

via The Advocate and PinkNews and Washington Blade

what the high-t rules were

In July, Pete Hegseth stood in front of a camera and announced a High-T Department of War: mandatory testosterone blood tests for every man in uniform aged 30 and up, so the warfighters could, in his words, "remain strong, resilient, and capable." On Wednesday, September 2, the Pentagon published the actual clinical guidance. By Thursday it was gone from the website.

A Pentagon official told Reuters the document was "temporarily rescinded to allow for updates." No timeline was given for the update. The underlying order still stands, so the tests are still coming. The rulebook just needed a minute.

What was in the rulebook while it existed: men 30 and over get tested whether they like it or not. Younger men can ask, or get tested if a clinician thinks they look low. Women get no blood test at all. Instead they are screened once a year for fatigue, menstrual disruption and low energy availability, and testosterone treatment is only on the table for postmenopausal women with low sexual desire, off-label, closely monitored, and stopped after six months if it isn't working. The guidance also admitted, in its own text, that "the evidence does not show testosterone treatment improves women's psychological well-being, cognition, cardiovascular health, bone density or muscle performance." So the department wrote down that the science is thin and published it anyway. Then unpublished it.

the contradiction at the center

Here is the part that makes it a Cunt of the Week and not just a clerical error. The same department is right now discharging transgender service members and cutting off their hormone therapy, under a January 2025 executive order that says trans people cannot meet military standards of "honesty," "humility" and "integrity." The D.C. Circuit has ruled 2 to 1 that trans troops already serving can stay for now while new recruits are barred. In July, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes asked the government to explain how hormones can be readiness medicine for one group and a disqualifying condition for another. She is still waiting.

Kara Corcoran, executive director of SPARTA Pride, put it plainly to the Blade: "If hormone therapy helps warfighters perform at their best, then it cannot simultaneously be used as evidence that transgender service members are unfit to serve." Rep. Pramila Jayapal got there in one line: "This, by the way, is gender affirming care."

The FDA meets later this month to talk about testosterone. Somewhere in the Pentagon, a policy document is getting its updates. We will let you know when it comes back, and whether it still forgets who else takes hormones in that building.