Judge in trans military ban case demands Pentagon explain Hegseth’s testosterone double standard
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Judge Ana Reyes is demanding answers about a policy that offers testosterone to some troops while citing hormone care to remove others.
Reyes took judicial notice of Hegseth’s July 15 announcement that all service members 30 and older, including women, would receive annual screening for testosterone deficiency. Troops found to have low testosterone may voluntarily receive testosterone replacement therapy, known as TRT, as part of their periodic health assessments.
The judge then placed Hegseth’s program beside the language of Trump’s military ban. That policy declares that members of the armed forces must meet high mental and physical standards “without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.”
“The Court must assess the impact of this newly announced policy on the parties’ positions,” Reyes wrote in Talbott v. United States, later setting an August 7 briefing deadline.
The same hormone, two standards:
Her order places an increasingly conspicuous contradiction at the center of the litigation. The Trump administration has argued that transgender service members may be excluded partly because they require continuing medical treatment, including hormone therapy. Hegseth, meanwhile, has announced that the military will routinely test older service members for low testosterone and provide the same hormone when doctors recommend it.
Reyes now wants the Pentagon to explain why testosterone can be treated as a tool of health and readiness for cisgender troops but as evidence of unfitness when prescribed to transgender men.
A two-week-long trial is scheduled to begin on January 4, 2027.