Pentagon issues directive to monitor female service members’ periods, track changes in menstrual cycle

The Pentagon has announced that it will now be monitoring female service members’ periods and searching for signs of “disrupted menstrual cycles.” This change in policy stems from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s much-publicized plans for “Health and Human Performance Optimization,” which will see mandatory testosterone deficiency screening for all service members of 30.

Questions were soon raised about what this meant for women serving, as the policy as announced did not discriminate between men and women. Now, as per Army Times, an update to the guidance signed by DHA Director Vice Adm. Darin Via confirmed plans for women to face an annual clinical screen for “hormonal dysregulation.”

The update explains that the Defense Health Agency (DHA) will be carefully examining women for changes in their menstrual patterns so as to identify the length of their cycles. Any cycles longer than 35 days would prompt “a targeted assessment for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport.”

They are also searching for women with “a distressing decline in sexual function”

Based on the results of that assessment, the agency is apparently set to quiz female service members over whether choice of contraception and diet is affecting their periods. Postmenopausal women deemed to have “a distressing decline in sexual function” will be offered testosterone.

However, there is currently widespread confusion about the implementation of these policies, as soon after publication of the new guidance it was “temporarily rescinded” and the memo has been removed from the Defense Department website. As per Stars and Stripes, the Pentagon said, “The ‘Interim Guidance on Testosterone Deficiency Screenings for Active Duty and Reserve Component Personnel’ remains in effect. The final clinical guidance will be issued shortly.”

Medical professionals have widely criticized these hormonal screening plans for service members. Johns Hopkins University endocrinologist and professor of medicine Adrian Dobs called it “crazy“, McMaster University kinesiology professor Stuart Phillips said it was “kind of a ridiculous notion“, and University of Washington endocrinologist Bradley Anawalt said, “This is a great big fat ‘Oh, no’” and accused the Pentagon of conducting “one giant experiment without consent.”

As of writing, it is unclear why the published guidance has been withdrawn, whether any changes to the plan will be made, and how long the “temporary” withdrawal of the memo will last. However, Hegseth has been adamant that these plans must come into effect, claiming that they are necessary to survive a “brutal and unrelenting” modern battlefield that “requires and demands maximum psychological and mental readiness” and that service members must be “on the leading edge of lethality.”