r/politics • u/spherocytes • 7h ago
No Paywall Kelly: Military ‘doesn’t need more testosterone, it needs better leadership’
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5981471-kelly-opposes-hegseth-testosterone-screenings/•
u/Total-Mushroom-9614 7h ago
Just wait until the wave of depression hits these soldiers as they retire and the VA doesn’t want to pay to keep their T levels raging.
You will know me by my saggy moobs and malaise.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 7h ago
His name was Robert Paulson!
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u/BWWFC 6h ago
office space backstory... milton, a burned out former army green beret, just wanted simple life.
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u/gizzardgullet Michigan 5h ago
milton "um...even the women and children?"
Sargent "Yes, soldier! That's an order!"
milton "ok"
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u/Total-Mushroom-9614 5h ago
Someone could churn out a whole series of novels from his Green Beret days. Required reading for the High-T soldiers.
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u/highpriestess420 3h ago
Were that the case I think he would've gone full Falling Down and used a swingline stapler on the boss, payroll, and the cake passers.
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u/No_big_whoop 6h ago
Shutting down endogenous testosterone production seems like an odd choice for hyper masculine men. Hopefully these guys do some research before they sign up for it.
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u/Total-Mushroom-9614 6h ago
“Sign up for it”
That’s a cute concept. They are in the military. Their body is the property of the US govt. They can receive reprimands for getting sunburns.
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u/roguewarriorpriest 6h ago
Every step along the chain of command is an opportunity to stop insane, harmful stuff like this from harming troops. Servicemembers have autonomy, they have a conscience, and they have a choice.
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u/TheArmoredKitten 3h ago
And they regularly choose not to use it when you hand them a piece of paper that says 'do what I said or jail'
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u/No_big_whoop 6h ago
Hegseth said it was optional
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u/Undorkins 5h ago
"Optional" in the military is a pretty flexible term.
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u/IT_Chef Virginia 6h ago
Sure, and those that get the shots will be bonused out an extra few hundred dollars/month for doing so.
Or some other bullshit like that
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u/Spimflagon 5h ago
"We fuck over veterans pretty hard, financially and psychologically; but is there a way we can do it chemically too?"
"...bitchtits?"
"Son, I like the way you think."
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u/kandoras 5h ago
Just wait until the mix of testosterone and TBI makes a generation of Chris Benoits.
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u/Quirky_Entry_2783 4h ago
Pump them up on T while in the military so when they get out their bodies don't produce even the normal level without supplementation making them dependent on supplementation for the rest of their lives. It's a win for big pharma all around.
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u/trialsofamadman 3h ago
Oh, the extra special part... if you are on T, your endocrine system will decide that since you have so much already, you don't need to make more and your body will shut off natural production. The testosterone is produced in your balls, and this will cause them to shrink and can also cause infertility.
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u/show_time_synergy 2h ago
To add to that, the elevated levels of anger and hostility T brings.
My dad was already prone to rages. Extra testosterone on top of that literally earned him an arrest record.
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u/cursedcephalopod 3h ago
The veteran/soldier suicide rate is already horrible, this is going to make it so much worse.
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u/Waggmans Massachusetts 1h ago
Or the VA doesn't want to pay for the prostate cancer they got from their testosterone treatments.
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u/OklahomaVFL 5h ago
It’s not expensive. It cost me about $30 a month.
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u/HxH101kite 4h ago
Highly doubt it unless your one of the minor cases insurance covers.
Regular insurance usually does not cover test in you are in the range, even you are on the lowest end.
Through vitality clinics with Drs it's usually 100-200 a month.
The VA will only cover it under the same threshold as regular insurance. Making it super inaccessible.
Are you ordering the test direct with out Dr guidance?:
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u/OklahomaVFL 4h ago
Have you actually looked into it? Or are you guessing?
I pay about $60 for 10 ml. It last 2.5 months.
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u/HxH101kite 3h ago
Yes I have went to vitality clinics and got those quotes. And yes both my private insurance and the VA will not cover it
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u/OklahomaVFL 3h ago
Don’t go to a clinic. Just see your primary care physician.
Did you start TRT? It’s a game changer.
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u/ArchitectofExperienc 2h ago
Dependence on T is a feature, not a bug. Didn't expect Hegseth to be a Deep Space 9 fan, though
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u/Obvious-Science-7119 7h ago
Pete is proof that injecting testosterone doesn't solve the problem
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u/ChicagoThrowaway422 6h ago
The scariest thought I have is that Pete believes everything he says instead of just cynically playing his role.
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u/redneckrockuhtree 6h ago
Everything he says and does just projects incredible insecurity.
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u/Little_View_6659 6h ago
That’s literally the whole administration. We’re being governed by podcast bros and kids that were bullied into repressed rage.
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u/redneckrockuhtree 6h ago
The podcast bros are the smokescreen for the reality of what's happening behind the scenes.
A significant portion of Project 2025 has been enacted. All while the media has focused on the reprehensible antics of the podcast bros.
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u/GreenGoblinNX 2h ago
That's why it infuriates me when people say stuff like "it's all a distraction from the Epstein files". No, if anything the Heritage Foundation / Project 2025 people were LOVING that so many people hyperfocused on the Epstein stuff, and just brushed away the actual goal as mere distraction.
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u/redneckrockuhtree 2h ago
Yup.
The love that they're sneaking this shit under the radar.
Of course, politicians whipping of stomping on rights of transgender folks, women's healthcare, voting and immigrants is all just a smokescreen to distract from how they're fucking us all over.
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u/metengrinwi 5h ago
Middle-aged men coming to grips with the fact that their dick doesn’t work like it used to.
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u/tengutie 1h ago
They weren't bullied, they are spoiled brats who were never forced to deal with reality because of family wealth, they have always ben the bullies, the same kind that schools always protect because their parents have money
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u/xv_boney 5h ago
He is obsessed with this pure boot "warrior culture" mentality
Like i know he was a major but holy shit he acts like a fresh recruit tooling up in a brand new Charger
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u/m0ngoos3 5h ago
He never actually did anything as a major because he was sidelined as an insider threat due to his white nationalist tattoos. As a captain, he taught counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, teaching from pre-approved materials supplied to him.
And finally, we come to his only command experience, as a Lieutenant he commanded a small squad at Guantanamo bay.
He was Guard, so those were the times he was on active duty, the rest of the time was playing weekend warrior and getting a spot on Fox News as the angry military guy who never saw action, but wants to send your children straight into it.
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u/xv_boney 4h ago
Who also doesnt believe germs are real.
I dont know why that feels so important to point out but it does.
This is a man who is so deeply, desperately insecure about his masculinity and intelligence he has invented an entire reality he can paddle around in like a child.
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u/duzies 3h ago
You mean the "alpha male" who had to have a taxpayer-funded makeup studio installed in the Pentagon so he could properly put on his face? The guy who spent $25 million on steak and lobster and wasted another $100 B in a single month (September 2025) to keep the taxpayer teats flowing?
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u/redneckrockuhtree 5h ago
Yeah, that "warrior culture" he's after is an insecure person's view of a "tough guy."
Everything is superficial and showy, because he's compensating.
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u/Spimflagon 5h ago
Some people take the wrong lessons from Helldivers.
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u/xv_boney 4h ago
Our utter dearth of media literacy will be the end of america.
For fucks sake.
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u/zimbledwarf 3h ago
People thinking Fortunate Son is a Pro-Veitnam war or Born in the USA is a patriotic anthem are easy, long standing examples.
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u/drfsrich 5h ago
MAGA in a nutshell.
"HEY I'M NOT IN A NUTSHELL YOU PUSSY BITCH! I COULD BREAK OUT OF IT WITH MY BARE HANDS! WATCH THIS TIKTOK VIDEO SET TO "FORTUNATE SON" FOR PROOF!"
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u/kingcrow15 11m ago
You mean like how he kept taking his wife with him to meetings despite her not having a role, & lacking clearance?
Imagine if Hillery kept inviting Bill Clinton to classified meetings as secretary of defense (war?)
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u/layer3ninja 6h ago
feels like there should be a multi-syllable German word for "I believe I am the one in control while simultaneously being completely blind to what is actually controlling me"
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u/emerald6_Shiitake 5h ago
Speaking of, the Nazis and SED (East German communist party) were obsessed with performance-enhancing drugs. The Nazis were known to use meth in the military and even attempted a meth program, with the results you probably expected. Later on, East Germany had a state-sponsored doping program for its Olympic athletes, again with the expected negative results. I don’t know German, but there probably should be a colorful word for drug-crazed authoritarians given previous experience
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u/SorryAboutTheWayIAm 5h ago
Kant's "heteronomy" (the opposite of "autonomy") fits that definition. Being governed by external or unrecognized forces while believing oneself to be self-governing
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u/Excelius 6h ago
He's absolutely one of the ones who believes most of what he's pushing. A lot of this stuff isn't even coming from Trump and the White House, it's Pete's own insane beliefs and the WH just doesn't care enough to reign him in.
Similar to RFK Jr. You know Trump thinks he's nuts but as long as he demonstrates fealty when required, the White House will let him do whatever crazy stuff he wants to do over the domain he has been appointed.
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u/joshdoereddit America 3h ago
He comes across across like a serious idiot who believes all the bullshit leaving his face.
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u/Improving_Myself_ 3h ago edited 3h ago
More test causes problems. It doesn't solve shit.
If anything, testing for testosterone in the military should be to ensure everyone is below a certain number. Like 450 ng/dL.
The normal range for an adult male is between 300 and 1000 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL).
A few years ago, I was really diligent about going to the gym and I gained strength quickly. I hit a few numbers in my first year that people in various strength communities claimed took years, with some people never expecting to hit in their lifetimes. Thinking high test might be making me a freak, I asked my doctor if we could check for that and she obliged. Boy was I wrong. Not only did I not have high test, but I was at a low enough level to get TRT if I wanted it. I got a few more tests over the next few months and they were consistent.
Still being focused on number go up at the gym, I tried some things to increase my test. Not a lot, just 10-15 ng/dL. And holy shit they worked, and I will absolutely never do that again.
The change in mental state was completely unacceptable. It was a constant barrage of intrusive thoughts of extremely heinous stuff. Things I've never thought before or ever considered. I'm normally a calm, long fuse, low risk, go with the flow type person, and if I'd kept doing it for much longer I genuinely think I'd be in jail now for something violent. If 300 -> 315 was that freakish of a change, what the hell is going on in the brains of guys who are 600 or 1000 all the time?! Are they just walking domestic abuse and SA cases? And the people on steroids exceeding the normal limit, sometimes multiple times over? Good lord.
There are a few former bodybuilders that have talked about it as well and I'm extremely confident that the things they choose to say out loud are the very tip of the iceberg, because the rest of it is horrifying.
"High test" is not a good thing. It is a terrifying mental state, that makes the person with it a constant risk to everyone around them. Being high test should be a reason to disqualify someone from... a lot of things.
Just looked it up to see if testosterone levels of inmates had been studied, and it has been quite a bit. "Studies consistently show a correlation between higher testosterone levels and crimes involving violence or sex."
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u/redditallreddy Ohio 5h ago
I don't think anyone has ever said you can solve the problem of idiocy with testosterone.
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u/totally_not_a_zombie 4h ago
It has nothing to do with testosterone. It's to make progressives and liberals leave outof principle, and only keep the loyalists in the army to do the dirty work more efficiently and willingly.
People just seem to see the words, not the intent.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Australia 5h ago
Here's the thing I don't understand about Hegseth's attitude to his job. In every military in history that's remembered for being great, the key component was discipline (yeah yeah logistics, but that's an outgrowth of discipline IMO). Yet with every decision Hegseth makes on how to change the military, he's pushing them towards less discipline - more lethality and violence and aggression and erratic behaviour, less organisational structure and systems. It's bizarre, from listening to his maniacal rantings to the media, his vision of "warriors" means the US military should be a rabble of unhinged beserkers who can't tell friend from foe and logistics is for pussies and dweebs.
Also on a more general note it's pretty fucking funny that this administration is turning into the exact caricature of liberals that they cried about (i.e. mandatory gender-affirming hormone therapies).
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u/No_Initial_7545 5h ago
It's as if his every idea comes from a movie that he has seen and not from any personal experience. Wars aren't won by masculinity, it doesn't matter how hard you can punch when the opponent has a gun and bigger muscles just makes you a bigger target. They've been glazing the Russian military as "real men" and "anti-woke" and we see in Ukraine how well that's going for them. And yet they insist on making the exact same mistakes that Russia has done. The US military was the most feared military in the world a few years ago. It still is, but every year it turns more into a clown show and less of a thing to be taken seriously.
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u/AdPristine5131 3h ago
There’s often conversations about the difference between warrior and soldier mindsets. Not to say they are exclusive to each other, but it often comes down to discipline and how you channel aggression. And like you said, most famous militaries in history succeeded thanks to focus on a soldier mindset. The romans are probably one of the best example because they were a warrior culture, who designed their military to force members into a soldier mindset. And they faced warrior cultures from around the world. The celts famously preferred a dueling style of battle, similar in many ways to the samurai, and is famously terrible against volley fire.
Nowadays, pushing the warrior mindset often feels silly because guns and artillery mean that the most critical factor for effective fighting is the reliability of your shooting. Which requires calm trigger discipline. Or it requires math. Things like “berserker rages” actively make you shoot worse. so all that is going to get you is a large hole.
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u/kazh_9742 2h ago
If his job was to dismantle U.S capability and future global response then he'd be right on course.
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u/Bucktabulous 2h ago
The wild irony here is that a big reason the US Armed Forces are so formidable has little to do with "lethality" or "warrior mindsets," and everything to do with the fact that they are essentially a massive logistics company that does war on the side. They could get boots on the ground, basically anywhere in the world, in a day or less. German soldiers spoke about how they knew they would lose the war not because of missiles or rifles or airplanes, but because the Americans had deployed a ship whose sole purpose was providing ice cream to their troops for morale. The ability to get ice cream into a war zone is insane, logistically, especially at scale, and that was what proved the US would win.
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u/sokratesz 2h ago
That's because hegseth is a fucking loser who doesn't understand anything about what makes a military organisation work. And I'm pretty sure he'd count as historically illiterate. All he knows is "shit that 15 year old me thought was cool".
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u/Zeitcon Europe 7h ago
Less testosterone, more brains, please.
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u/Oregon-Pilot 6h ago
Yep, and it’s a pretty low bar get to this point of understanding. Hegseth is a moron.
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u/MountainMan2_ 5h ago edited 5h ago
He's literally just a muscle head. Remember when we used to shame people like this? Johnny Bravo was literally an entire show making fun of muscleheaded idiots who are too stupid to fuck. They literally parodied it so hard that Johnny looped back around to being beloved. Now, these guys who used to be laughed out of the room, they're not only running the military, but a major voting bloc. When do we stop shaming people for dumb shit and go back to shaming people for THIS? Johnny Bravo got flak for being too misogynist at the time!
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u/UNC_Samurai 5h ago
Remember when we used to shame people like this?
The right figured out how to use social media to turn shamelessness into a virtue.
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u/Oregon-Pilot 5h ago
I blame lack of education and shitty parenting. Douchebags shouldn’t reproduce because then their poor kids have them to look up to, and their poor kids aren’t taught how to handle emotions correctly. And then when you gut the education system, and insist that parents know what’s best for their kids (just cus you can fuck doesn’t make you some parental genius, which is another one of those head scratchers that people with brains can understand with no issue), then you get this glorification of idiocy. People are actually proud about it, like you’ve said. It’s wild. I just wish people could go endure their preferences in every area of their life so they could experience the consequences. Don’t “believe” in vaccines or evolution? Ok, no modern medicine for you. You shouldn’t get to stomp on one and enjoy the benefits of all the others when they’re all based on the same science.
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u/the_tanooki 1h ago
What does Kelly know?! He's never had to serve and endure the hardships that is hosting for Fox News! /s
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u/annulene North Carolina 4h ago
Yes, but how can we maintain the claim that men are superior to everyone else if you ask for more brain and less brawn? 🥺
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u/TossedUponTheSand 6h ago
I feel like A LOT of the problems in the US could be solved by 'less testosterone, more leadership'
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u/Talk-O-Boy 5h ago
A leader is only as strong as their eunuch:
-Varys
-Reek
-Kronk
-Happen
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u/Pherllerp New Jersey 5h ago
...is Kronk a eunuch!?!? That makes so much sense!
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u/diabloman8890 4h ago
"Kronk is canonically a eunuch" was not on my Reddit bingo card for today lol
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u/knightcrawler75 Minnesota 3h ago
If I had to guess 90% of military jobs are using skills and intellect and have nothing to do with muscle mass or T levels. Training and education makes the military more lethal.
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u/Maleficent_Pie8099 6h ago
It needs to stop being used for imperialism. That’s what it needs. It needs to be scaled back to a reasonable size and scale, and not used to bully every nation of the Earth into submission.
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u/Adept-Opinion8080 4h ago
What's hilarious is they're finding it hard to bully a nation that's 1/20th the size
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u/lonetraveler73 6h ago
They want to make 30 year old men sterile. I thought they wanted people to have more babies.
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u/Little_View_6659 6h ago
Yeah they don’t exactly understand science.
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u/redditallreddy Ohio 5h ago
Maybe, if they ate more rotting whale carcass...
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u/Little_View_6659 4h ago
Nah man, you gotta snort it. That’s how you get the peptides and vitamin C.
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u/disastrousanddull 6h ago
In a massive coincidence, all of the black and hispanic soldiers have low testosterone.
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u/Liefvikingmonster2 6h ago
It needs better food, actually.
But definitely a change of leadership is overdue. What a predictable diseaster Pete and Trump got us into.
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u/julyvale 6h ago
It brings me great comfort that the current gen of males have Hegseths things as their gurus.
It's the greatest birth control ever invented in history of mankind.
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u/SasparillaTango 5h ago
Why is it that the most over compensating piece of shit gets into power and suddenly theres a hormone crisis? Why could that be? Does the Fox News talking head have some magical knowledge that the most well funded military in the world lacked prior to his joining?
How fucking stupid do you have to be to believe that Pete Hegseth knows anything about anything.
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u/Appropriate_One9326 6h ago
Not only the army needs it, everyone needs it. We have a problem because clowns are leading us, or actually people behind the scenes that we don't know, although we can guess who they are. They are the ones who should be changed since they are the owners of big corporations who primarily want financial profit, and only then state leaders and the military, as they say money makes the world go round. When there is good leadership of people who use knowledge to improve civilization and not for their own benefit, only then have we done something
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u/ThreeEyesWhitePerson 5h ago
It needs to be smaller. When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When almost all your spending as a country is on the military, every problem has a military solution. This has been one of the US's biggest problems since its inception, but especially since the Second World War.
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u/ike7177 4h ago
Mark is absolutely correct! The leadership is getting so diluted with MAGA propaganda, there is no discipline anymore that encourages team building and cohesion. It’s all about every “man” for himself now. Disgusting! I am so glad I retired at the beginning of Trumps first term. What an embarrassment!
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u/Practical-Day-2720 4h ago
Yes the testosterone nonsense is ridiculous. Where is the evidence it makes you a better soldier? I can see how it could make you a better UFC fighter or something, but war fighting and fist fighting are very different.
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u/krichard-21 6h ago
This testosterone nonsense being pushed by the morons that don't believe in vaccines... Got it!
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u/Traghorn 6h ago
I gotta say, Kelly speaks his mind well - and he has discipline, empathy, and experience. Fwiw.
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u/kandoras 6h ago
Plus, you got to respect a man who smuggled a gorilla suit into orbit for his brother to play a prank on a coworker.
You've got Hegseth's version of bro energy, and you've got Mark Kelly's. I know which one I prefer.
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u/RebelAlliance1701 6h ago
Almost like he was a Naval officer, astronaut, and United States Senator.
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u/UnbreakableAlice 6h ago
I thought they were against gender affirming health care.
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u/DiamondLight25 5h ago
Trump thinks emotion and arm wrestling win wars. Be easy on him, a draft dodger wouldn’t understand.
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u/elder65 4h ago
The Commander-in-Chief is a Draft Dodger. The Secretary of Defense/War is a retired National Guard Major/Fox News Sportscaster.
Exactly what kind of leadership were you expecting. Hell, we had better leadership from Rumsfeld, a businessman who knew damn all about the military, but had good leadership and management capabilities.
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u/1960s_army_info 2h ago
The stress of war, deployment and even training causes low testosterone. They are stressed, not sleeping enough, not eating at regular time and these all contribute to low testosterone. Having low testosterone sucks. Your energy goes to shit, you aren’t as alert, it’s harder to stay in shape and these are all things you don’t want in a soldier. Testosterone isn’t especially expensive or dangerous at replacement levels. This is honestly a no brainer and something that should have been done years ago. Trained experienced troops are more likely to stay enlisted if they don’t feel like shit. Also less likely to experience other injuries that could very well cost more to heal than preventative testosterone prescriptions. Prescribe them growth hormone too. Make these guys feel 20 again. These are bioidentical hormones with low risk of complications
This level of access to testosterone should be universal and not just limited to troops. I had a buddy who welds pipeline in his 20’s and had to be prescribed testosterone due to long hours out in the sun working a stressful job where you can’t just take breaks when you want. There are millions of men and women who would benefit from trt
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u/Opposite-Bit6660 5h ago
Of the possible presidential candidates who could bring our military and government agencies out of their dark places, national hero Sen. Mark Kelly has my vote.
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u/ReallyHoping 5h ago
When someone told Pete Hegseth to work smarter and not harder, he saw that as personal challenge to never choose smarter.
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u/NotThatAngel 4h ago
The people running our military now are badly behaved children who think "Pew! pew!" is foreign policy.
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki 4h ago
fun note, T supplements for otherwise healthy men turns off the body's ability to make its own. It's why Clavicular doesn't work down there (I genuinely hope it's not too late for his body to recover, not just for himself but to show how an off-ramp exists for that community).
So for the right-wing weirdos, the real low-T betas were the friends they made along the way.
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u/Proximity 3h ago
You can safely dismiss every single insecure man who talks about "high T" as an avoidable creep who posts on "chan" sites.
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u/ShransSecretSanta 3h ago
How are men not more angry about being subjected to an unnecessary and highly private test? A test they are using to inadequately measure and define "manliness".
How would anyone agree to an invasive screening, much less one that has more potential to harm and zero potential to make anything about the military better?
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u/Bronzyroller 3h ago
Military needs a better government that make way better choices than what we have now.
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u/RealGianath Oregon 2h ago
You know, the Nazis just pumped their tank guys up with meth when they needed them to rage across Europe without needing sleep. Maybe Hegseth should get his meth guy a government contract and start getting all the troops used to his drug of choice before our next war.
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u/Gothwerx 1h ago
The entire purpose of checking for testosterone levels and ball size is to weed women out of the military.
There is a concerted effort to expel women from any and all positions of authority, so that the US can turn into a handmaiden style society where women become property again.
That, and more testosterone/bigger balls probably turns Pete Hegseth on more when they're nutting in his mouth.
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u/Substantial_Sea7327 50m ago
this is why, as an Independent voter, I fully support Mark Kelly if he runs for president.
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u/Undorkins 5h ago
They're going to damage a generation of impoverished men by doing permanent damage to their testicles all so that an incompetent loser can feel like he's making a difference.
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u/Careful-Artichoke468 5h ago
Like 18 months of the Purge and they need better leadership, you dont say
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u/tripping_on_phonics Illinois 5h ago
The military needs a new mission. It should no longer be used as a way of imposing our political and economic will on less powerful countries that pose no threat to us.
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u/EvilStevilTheKenevil 4h ago
With or without the T, any halfway serious student of military history would tell you there is invariably a shortage of quality leadership.
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u/estanmilko 4h ago
Do we really want thousands of soldiers on medicine that they need to inject multiple times a week under clean conditions? What does that do to combat readiness and the supply logistics?
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u/Trick_Quiet3484 4h ago
Agree! Having real leaders who have the best interests of the US, troops, expertise in military strategy and capabilities development with mission clarity is much better than performative actions like Hegseth’s gender affirming use of synthetic testosterone.
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u/newtochas 4h ago
Anecdotally going on TRT as a young man was a game changer for me. However, I didn’t want kids and my overall health wasn’t great including the low testosterone. There’s a lot of confusion on why testosterone is important for men. Yes, too much can give the stereotypical roid rage. But there’s a ton of benefits to restoring it to naturally healthy levels. It’s frustrating to see Reddit say that TRT is gender affirming treatment but wouldn’t joke about a woman going on hormone corrective treatment.
With all that said, I think Pete is a moron and probably has a caveman mentality that more testosterone will turn his army into more hardened killers. I also worry that this testing will lead to discrimination and discharge. If any servicemen do decide to go on treatment, I hope that they do research and understand the potential need to continue treating this for life.
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u/Xeno9116 1h ago
People are calling it gender affirming care because Kegsbreath is against gender affirming care in the military. It is pointing out his hypocrisy, not that we believe young men with low T shouldn't get treatment .
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u/SomeGalNamedAshley 3h ago
Testosterone production operates on a feedback loop. You can go too low for sure, but going too high is also bad. If you start supplementing a sex hormone then your feedback loop will note that and back off your natural production. Trans women depend on this fact for what's called monotherapy where simply juicing enough estrogen will crash testosterone without having to use any kind of testosterone suppression meds. That same thing works with adding testosterone to a man's system though, that feedback loop doesn't care about which sex hormone is dominant, just so much as there's enough of the stuff floating around. And yes, just about everybody naturally has a little of both, just in different ratios.
(Except Elon Musk. Find a picture of him on the beach and it's obvious he has an upper torso deformity that looks a lot like someone with "aromatase deficiency", so he's probably been prescribed estrogen himself)
Now the real fun starts when you have too much testosterone. Excess free testosterone will get turned into estrogen. Lots of free testosterone will get turned into lots of estrogen.
Last fun fact, about half a percent of men walking around have a biochemistry anomaly that when they get a good chunk of estrogen in them it's fucking awesome and their depression and anxiety goes away. This anomaly is genetic and within families that half a percent rate goes up about two orders of magnitude.
So if you want to sniff out your latent trans folks then go ahead and start fucking with people"s sex hormones en masse. What could possibly go wrong?
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u/Ok-disaster2022 3h ago
So there is truth that testosterone can lag due to things like stress, pollution and other environmental factors that soldiers go through. But it's not a new thing. Soldiers in WW2 went through much if the same issues.
The "warrior culture" that started with the spec ops and is infecting the rest of the military is what's causing harm. The poor political leadership that undermines achievable military results is the problem.
The greatest military operation the modern US military every achieved was Desert Storm. Desert Storm had clear goals, it was a political achievement in that sooo many countries joined the coalition. And it's literally one if the few times where leadership could tell the ground units that 3-4 days if heavy fighting and it will be over was pretty much true. Gen Stormin Norman did a decent job controlling the media and organizing the militaries and he did so without a "warrior ethos" mentality.
The military should be professional soldiers, marians, sailers, airmen and space cadets. Not warriors.
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u/trialsofamadman 3h ago
The ridiculous thing is that you don't even want 'roided up muscle freaks in the military to begin with. Newsflash: militaries don't rely on hand to hand combat.
You want small teams of people who can each carry a 150lb sack on a three day forced march without being seen, then take over a city with what they carried in. For that you need discipline, self control, education on dealing with locals and learning languages quickly, stamina to run long distances with minimal sleep, and unwavering trust in the other members of their unit. They need to be able to do all of this with minimal communication back to their command structure, maybe once or twice a day. That's basically what the US military has been training to do since WWII, and... well, they are actually pretty good at it.
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u/Bierdaddy 2h ago
An army of in-cels with “…best healthcare in the world”, destined for hairy backs, bad breath, small balls, low sperm count, bone issues, heart issues, and anger problems? Seems like Heg wants hairy angry men assaulting foes with bad breath eventually ensuring welfare for big pharma as veterans become dependent on heart meds and calcium supplements. Either way, they likely won’t be able to reproduce, so there’s that. 🏆
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u/moodplasma 1h ago
What's funny is that the Venn diagram for concern about testosterone levels overlaps with anxiety about fertility rates.
But if men supplement with testosterone, it sends a message internally that their bodies need to produce less sperm.
You cannot write this shit.
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u/Cheapdronewithboom 1h ago
Needs better soldiers too. No spines, no morals, just thugs with explosive toys and the urge to use them on ANYONE (looking at you US citizens)
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u/LegendaryOutlaw 1h ago
So we're losing a war we started, and their excuse is that the soldiers must not have enough testosterone to win.
Nevermind that this war hasn't really had 'boots on the ground.' Its not like there are platoons of Marines charging up a sand dune or fighting hand to hand.
It's been fought entirely at a distance, firing missiles from battleships in the Strait, or drone pilots sitting in a dark room, or Navy pilots 3 miles in the air dropping smart bombs.
Oh and its REALLY funny that stuff like vaccines for soldiers is now optional, but testosterone is all but mandatory.
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u/Interesting-Fly-6891 1h ago
So true and so indicative of the immature, misinformed and destructive leadership of this regime. No, we don’t need to pump young men up with angry fighting juice and loose their fertility for ever. We need strong leadership that will support a new world order of principled, intelligent and humanity gifted leaders. Get these under qualified, insecure men more focused on their sexual prowess and human dominance, that in the end will cost us as a nation for decades. Kelly is a true mature, courageous, proven winner. Come on America. Let’s elect proven leaders, not obnoxious tv personalities n
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u/Alternative-Crow404 34m ago
can’t wait for them to develop something irreversible and then the government disappears and says veterans don’t need healthcare.
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u/To-Far-Away-Times 22m ago edited 18m ago
Less testosterone and more criminal investigations into who gave the order to “lethality-max” on 150 little girls in an elementary school.
Since it was the opening strike in a war of choice, it likely came from Pedo Pete and/or Diddling Donny.
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u/BiggieBigs34 14m ago edited 7m ago
Ok so, hormone imbalances are an actual issue for some people. I’m cool with people shitting on Hegseth for being an idiot POS but there’s too much vitriol being spewed towards testing testosterone.
Having a testosterone deficiency is a major issue that can cause a whole slew of issues, and if you’re a man with things like depression, erectile dysfunction and low energy, you should get your testosterone tested.
Im kinda annoyed at how many people are up in arms at the thought of testing hormones when imbalances are a real thing.
Lastly, have y’all heard about how much microplastics are in our food? And if yes, you know they’re not benign right? There have been links to microplastics and lower testosterone/fertility. Now of all times is not the time I’d specifically go after testosterone testing to shame a politician when there’s a ton of microplastics in our food/water.
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