The Defense Health Agency this week rolled out the clinical guidelines military medical providers will use to begin screening men for low testosterone each year.
The guidance directs medical professionals to ask male troops over age 30, as well as new recruits, about symptoms and risk factors that could be linked to testosterone deficiency. If their answers raise red flags, medical providers can move on to blood tests and possible diagnosis and hormone therapy.
Troops with testosterone prescriptions can still deploy with the right planning beforehand, DHA said. Their treatment supply must last as long as their deployment, plus 90 days — a requirement that could become tricky if their time overseas is extended. Where a person is headed can also complicate matters, if there aren’t temperature-controlled facilities around to store injectable testosterone or if troops aren’t allowed to use topical medications instead.
“A service member who is stable on testosterone therapy should be deployable without requiring a waiver, depending on the formulation,” the DHA guidance says. “Neither a diagnosis of testosterone deficiency nor stable maintenance therapy is, of itself, a basis for a duty limitation or a change in deployment status.”
But those who work in aeromedical, dive, submarine and nuclear fields may be disqualified for duty if diagnosed with testosterone deficiency, the guidance warns. Service officials make the final call on whether the condition may interfere with those critical missions.
AC
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