PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE

Islamabad, July 17, 2026. Pakistan's major outlets - Dawn, Geo News, and The Express Tribune - have largely echoed the announcement made on Wednesday by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: mandatory annual testosterone level testing for all US military personnel aged 30 and above. The stated goal, in his own words in a video message, is to address "testosterone deficiency that can harm health," as "science establishes that testosterone levels naturally decline with age." Soldiers diagnosed with a deficiency may be offered, on a voluntary basis, hormone replacement therapy "to ensure you have the right level of testosterone to operate at your best level." Military personnel under 30 can request the test on their own initiative.

The Express Tribune adds medical insight by citing Dr. Mohit Khera, who led an FDA expert panel on the subject, telling the BBC that every man over 30 should undergo such testing. The measure comes as the US Department of Health has already relaxed, last month, restrictions on age-related hormone replacement therapy.

The three publications also relay, without comment, criticism from the Democratic camp. Representative Summer Lee sarcastically remarked, "So now you support gender-affirming care?" joined by Senator Tammy Duckworth, who sees it as "gender-affirming care" in disguise, referencing the ban on transgender military personnel decreed by Hegseth himself, while many of them often relied on hormone therapy. This parallel, highlighted by Dawn and Geo News, sheds light on a perceived tension between the sudden openness to hormonal medicalization for "military masculinity" and the strict closure opposed to other forms of hormone treatment.

The Pakistani coverage remains factual and descriptive: no media outlet adds its own analysis of the implications for the US military or potential regional repercussions, instead documenting a strictly domestic controversy in the United States.