New Military Testosterone Directive

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Seems the SecDef just implemented a new directive mandating screening for low testosterone for all Service Members over 30yrs old. A conversation about this seems timely given the recent episodes about testosterone and Signal.

Seems to me this will ultimately lead to poor testing, over treatment, possibly bad outcomes as well as driving up healthcare costs (for the enterprise, obviously not for the soldier, but DHA has funding issues already).

How can clinicians who may be directed to carry this out best ensure they are doing the best for their patients? Being forced to practice medicine in a manner not supported by best practices is a bit concerning.

2

Sure - I think it’s premature to speculate or give advice before seeing the specific policies and how, exactly, they plan to implement this. This is going to be much more complex than the Secretary is anticipating.

Beyond that, I don’t have any other advice for clinicians beyond the material we’ve already put out on testing, diagnosing, and treating testosterone deficiency.

1 Like
3

That’s fair enough, bit too much of a knee jerk reaction by me. Hopefully there is a pivot and some common sense applied here somewhere.