Trump officials say men face a testosterone crisis. Experts say numbers tell different story

American men are facing a crisis in plummeting testosterone levels — at least according to several top Trump administration officials. But experts say there is key context that is being left out of the conversation, and the push towards hormone replacement therapy probably isn’t the panacea that officials believe it to be.

Members of President Trump’s cabinet, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have raised the issue of low testosterone among men repeatedly since they’ve assumed office.

One of Kennedy’s oft-repeated claims is that “an American teenager has less testosterone than a 68-year-old man,” and Hegseth this year rolled out mandatory testosterone testing for active service members over the age of 30.

Personnel found to have low testosterone levels have the option of starting voluntary hormone replacement therapy.

The focus isn’t without cause. Studies conducted in recent decades across the world in countries like the U.S., Denmark and more recently Israel have observed declining testosterone levels among men broadly.

A study published in October , funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, found that 25.7 percent of active-duty male Army personnel had a morning testosterone measurement below a threshold of 300 ng/dL, a cutoff used by the American Urological Association (AUA) to support a possible diagnosis of testosterone deficiency in men who are also displaying associated symptoms.

This is not an immediate indication of low testosterone, however, as the hormone can fluctuate widely throughout the day depending on someone’s health and fitness.

According to Claire E. Berryman, a former Pennington Biomedical researcher now at Purdue University and a corresponding author of the study, the findings are not sufficient for diagnosing hypogonadism, a condition where someone has little to no production of sex hormones, on their own.

“A diagnosis generally requires both consistent signs or symptoms of testosterone deficiency and unequivocally and repeatedly low testosterone concentrations. Clinical guidelines recommend confirming low testosterone concentrations with a second morning measurement,” Berryman said.

“Our study provides valuable information about the prevalence of testosterone concentrations below established thresholds, but we did not perform the comprehensive clinical evaluations required to diagnose hypogonadism,” she added.

Researchers in the Army-sponsored study used two thresholds, with one being the AUA’s 300 ng/dL cutoff. They additionally used a 264 ng/dL threshold, which Berryman said came from prior research that established a “harmonized reference range for testosterone concentrations in healthy, nonobese young men.”

The results of the research aligned with what prior studies had found within the general population. Berryman cited a 2018 study that found 30.8 percent of men fell below the 300 ng/dL threshold, though this study encompassed a much wider age range of men aged from 20 to over 60.

Some people, like Kennedy and conservative radio host Alex Jones, have taken this data as evidence that something in the environment is artificially, catastrophically decimating male testosterone levels.

The secretary has previously suggested that chemicals in drinking water are not only wreaking havoc on men’s testosterone levels, but that chemicals could be causing children to become transgender . He and his allies have said Kennedy is simply asking questions, but experts have repeatedly pushed back, saying there is no evidence to support this theory.

Kennedy, 72, has spoken about his own use of “testosterone replacements which are appropriate for my age.”

According to Sandeep Dhindsa, professor of medicine and the chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, much of the declining testosterone levels observed in recent studies can be attributed to a changing population.

“I think most of the decline in testosterone that would be noticed in studies is going to be the fact that we have an aging population. We have obesity. And when you take into account those factors, then the differences become smaller, but they don’t go away completely,” said Dhindsa.

Whether potential endocrine disruptors like microplastics, chemicals in the environment and phytoestrogens found in plants are to blame is still ” a bit unknown,” according to Dhindsa, who also noted that testosterone levels are highly sensitive to stress and illness.

“In fact, you would be surprised to know that soldiers, for example, if they are going to a war, they have very, very low testosterone levels,” Dhinsa said. “And that’s simply because they’re not getting anything to eat, they’re under high stress, they’re hardly sleeping. So, that’s the body’s normal response.”

Testosterone deficiency is often diagnosed by symptoms like low sex drive, fatigue, depression and erectile dysfunction. In the study sponsored by the Army, Berryman noted that participants were not selected based on symptoms or suspected testosterone deficiency.

Testosterone replacement therapy is prescribed to alleviate these symptoms, not to bring the body’s levels up to a specific number, though Hegseth has said the Pentagon’s screening program was meant to ensure personnel have the “right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best.”

As the Endocrine Society notes in its brief on testosterone therapy, hormone levels naturally decline with age past the age of 30 and can also temporarily fluctuate due to recent changes like exercising too much, poor nutrition or a severe illness. And the organization states that levels should be tested more than once.

Dhindsa warned that patients often have “unrealistic expectations” of what hormone therapy can do. He noted as an example that after some months of therapy, men might see an increase in muscle mass of 3 to 5 percent, which would not be enough for someone to notice.

“People feel that taking testosterone is almost a solution to many of their ills,” he said. “I can tell you by clinical practice, half of the men I give testosterone to come back in few months, and they say we can’t tell a difference. And the other half usually feel better in terms of their sexual symptom.”