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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats are pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for answers about his directive requiring the military to measure troops’ testosterone levels, seeking details on how the policy will be carried out amid concerns over how it will apply to women and whether it could inadvertently encourage service members to self-medicate with potentially dangerous supplements.

In a letter to Hegseth, Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ruben Gallego of Arizona said the Pentagon has provided little explanation for the new requirement, raising questions about its scientific basis, cost and potential consequences.

“The Department has provided no evidence that this sweeping new policy will improve force readiness or health, nor has it explained the scientific basis, costs, or risks associated with implementing it across the force,” the senators wrote.

Last week, Hegseth directed the military to begin screening testosterone levels for all service members, including women, age 30 and older as part of their annual physical health assessments, expanding routine exams that have traditionally focused on baseline health measures such as vision, hearing and other standard medical screenings. Troops under 30 may opt into testing voluntarily, and any recommendation for testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, would also be voluntary for all ages.

The policy has yet to be formally implemented, thus the specifics have not yet been figured out and it remains unclear when service members will begin undergoing testosterone screenings as part of their annual health assessments, though Hegseth directed a plan be ironed out by Aug. 15. 

The cost is also unknown and the Defense Department could require additional medical personnel to be hired for the screenings at routine annual exams.

The move comes as a broader focus on fitness has been core to Hegseth’s tenure — an unusual move for a role traditionally focused on large operations and the macro workings for the Pentagon — which includes regular videos from the Pentagon of Hegseth working out with troops. 

Hegseth has directed the services to adjust their fitness tests and reassess body-fat standards, including new measurement methods introduced earlier this month. The Army has also begun integrating gender-neutral fitness requirements for soldiers serving in ground combat roles.

Among the unresolved questions are whether service members could face administrative consequences if their testosterone levels fall below a threshold the Pentagon has yet to define and how the policy will apply to women.

“Coupled with the Department’s recent repeated efforts to redefine military culture around an exaggerated conception of masculinity, this initiative risks undermining years of work to ensure that women service members are evaluated and valued based solely on their ability to perform the mission,” the senators wrote.

Some welcomed the expanded access to testosterone screening and treatment, arguing that obtaining testosterone replacement therapy through Tricare, the military’s health insurance program, can be cumbersome. But others warned the policy could create unintended incentives for troops to use unregulated supplements or anabolic steroids to avoid being flagged for potential health issues, while raising concerns about embarrassment for those found to have low testosterone.

“I think this is a great idea on paper, but we need to be careful about how it’s implemented,” said one official who works in fitness coaching and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Low testosterone has long been a concern in some parts of the military, particularly within the special operations community, where prolonged stress, intense physical demands and inadequate caloric intake are believed to contribute to lower hormone levels, though there’s little detailed research on the subject. 

At the same time, testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, has surged in popularity across podcasts, social media and the broader wellness industry, where it is often promoted as a way to boost energy, muscle mass and overall vitality. Medical experts caution, however, that clinically low testosterone is relatively uncommon.

Testosterone deficiency affects roughly 2% of men, according to the American Urological Association, and physicians have warned that the growing popularity of TRT has created the misleading impression that the condition is far more widespread than medical evidence suggests.

Moreover, factors such as insufficient sleep and poor nutrition can contribute to lower testosterone levels, studies show, two issues the military has long struggled to address.

Nutrition, in particular, has been a persistent challenge across the services, with troops often reporting inconsistent access to high-quality, protein-rich meals. Military dining facilities have faced criticism for menus heavy on fried foods and carbohydrates, sugar, limited portions and operating hours that do not always align with the schedules of service members working long or irregular shifts.

“It’s a readiness, retention, recruiting and long-term health issue,” Rob Evans, an Army veteran whose app Hots & Cots collects reviews from service members on housing and food on military bases, told ABC News about issues with nutrition on military facilities.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House, in a bipartisan vote on Tuesday, passed a continuing resolution that funds the government through Dec. 11 — avoiding a shutdown ahead of the midterm elections in November.

The House acted in rare fashion with the vote — both by taking a bipartisan vote to avert a shutdown and doing so weeks ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline. Members of the House are up for reelection in the fall.

By a count of 370 to 48, the House cleared the measure — sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature. Just 19 Republicans and 29 Democrats opposed the measure, which initially passed the Senate on Aug. 8.

Following the vote, Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated its passage and thumbed his nose at those who questioned or openly doubted its prospects.

“House Republicans are in charge here, and we’re continuing to do the grown-up thing and make sure we get the job done. And we’re happy that we just passed that continuing resolution to fund the government through early December, and then we’ll continue through the process after the election,” Johnson said. “But there will be no government shutdown. You can thank Republicans for our leadership in getting that done.”

Late last year, there was a 43-day government shutdown — the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. At issue was an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Democrats pushed for, but Trump and Republicans said they would not negotiate until the government reopened.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state bans on transgender girls from participating in girls’ and women’s competitive sports, reversing a pair of lower court decisions that had blocked the bans as violations of Title IX and the 14th Amendment.

The 6-3 decision came from Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The ruling in a pair of cases from West Virginia and Idaho effectively upholds laws in those two states, plus 27 others that block trans girls from teams consistent with their gender identity.

The decision marks the first time the high court has weighed in on the heated national debate over transgender athletes.  

The court’s ruling is a major setback for the estimated 122,000 transgender American teenagers who participate in high school sports, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA.

For trans teens and their families, the dispute has involved a matter of immutable identity and equal opportunity.  

For many states and top U.S. athletic organizations, including the U.S. Olympic Committee and NCAA, the inclusion of trans athletes has been seen as creating an unfair and unsafe playing field.

The competitive advantage boys and men have physically over girls and women has been well established in physically demanding sports by medical research and serves as a primary basis for distinctions between the sexes in athletics.

Studies have shown testosterone produced during male puberty does lead to more muscle mass, larger hearts and lungs, greater body height and longer limbs on average for boys and men, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

Many transgender teens who have received gender-affirming medical treatment from a young age argue that they lack any physiological advantage because they have not undergone male puberty.

Twenty-one states allow transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams, including California and New York, which have laws explicitly protecting the right of trans girls to play.

Becky Pepper Jackson, the only known openly transgender athlete in West Virginia in any sport, sued her state in a bid to continue competing on her high school track team where she throws discus and shot put. Jackson recently won the state championship in girls shot put.

“I’ve been a girl forever, and playing on the guys’ team is going backwards,” she told ABC News in an interview last year.

When West Virginia’s law takes effect, she will no longer be allowed to participate in girls competitive sports leagues. Competing with boys, she said, would “go against who I am.”

Becky, who has openly identified as a girl since third grade, said she has never undergone male puberty, thanks to puberty-blocking medication.

Idaho college student Lindsay Hecox, a former track and cross-country runner who was barred from trying out for her school teams, sued over her state’s ban in 2020. Last year, she asked the Supreme Court to drop her case because she no longer wished to compete in sports and didn’t want to be in the spotlight. However, Idaho fought to keep the case alive.

Lower courts concluded separately that the state bans discriminate “on the basis of sex” in violation of Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that has promoted equal opportunities for women and girls in athletics, and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority reversed those decisions and reinstated the laws.

Last year, the same majority upheld a Tennessee law banning some gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors, rejecting claims that the law discriminated “on the basis of sex” and saying that states should have leeway to regulate health care in an area of scientific uncertainty.

In 2020, however, the high court concluded in a landmark decision that a Michigan transgender woman fired by her employer for being transgender was discriminated against “on the basis of sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Justice Neil Gorsuch explained in his majority opinion at the time that her termination was “for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.”

Sixty-nine percent of Americans believe transgender girls should only be allowed to play on boys’ teams, consistent with their gender assigned at birth, according to a June 2025 Gallup survey.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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