FREDONIA PROJECT – SITREP 28: TESTOSTERONE; THE FIX YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED

CABLE ID: 2026-0805-FRED/WASH/SITREP-028

DATE-TIME GROUP: 061800ZAUGUST2026.

FROM: EMBASSY OF FREDONIA, WASHINGTON, D.C.

TO: MFA NAGADOCHES

CLASSIFICATION: CONFIDENTIAL // FREDONIAN EYES ONLY

SUBJECT: SITREP 28 : FREDONIA PROJECT” – OBSERVATIONAL DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA IN CRISIS AUGUST 6 2026

SUMMARY: IN ACCORDANCE WITH MFA DIRECTIVE 1826-APRIL-1, THIS EMBASSY HAS INITIATED A REGULAR SERIES OF ANALYTICAL DISPATCHES REGARDING THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF THE UNITED STATES. THE SERIES, DESIGNATED “THE FREDONIA PROJECT,” WILL BE CIRCULATED UNDER STANDARD SITREP PROTOCOL. UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION HAS BEEN OBSERVED VIA THIRD-PARTY ENTITY KNOWN AS “THE STEADY STATE.” PRESUMED LEAK. NO ACTION REQUIRED.

2. Per the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), an American nonprofit, private public media enterprise, in mid July 2026, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced his decision to screen service members over 30 years of age for testosterone.

Testosterone, according to several American health organizations, from the Cleveland Clinic to the National Institutes of Health to the US Food and Drug Administration is an androgen hormone (sex hormone) which is produced in men in the testes and in women in the ovaries and adrenal glands. The male body produces considerably more than the female body; in both genders, the amount of testosterone in the body begins to drop at age 30.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, and other medical professionals with whom we spoke, testosterone is considered a sex hormone because it helps the body develop male or female traits and controls things like puberty and libido. Again, according to the Cleveland Clinic, low testosterone in adult men can include symptoms like loss of muscle mass and increased body fat, a depressed mood, weak bones, low sex drive, and difficulty with memory and concentration. The symptoms are not noticeable in women, because testosterone is not, in women, the main sex hormone. (Ambassador Comments: We are not medical experts, and cannot evaluate any symptoms in our Embassy staff. We note that it is Hegseth (and HHS Secretary Kennedy) who spend quite a bit of time posting videos of their exercise routines (shirtless push ups) and of themselves sweating in a manly way in saunas. We leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.)

Additionally, according to a representative of the medical profession, psychologist Dr. Adam Stanaland, quoted in Nautilus/Science, Hegseth et al, have it wrong, “More testosterone won’t make a better soldier or a tougher man — aggression and strength drive T (testosterone) levels, not the other way around.” Endocrinologist Adrian Dobs pointed out that a person with a testosterone level of 700 is not stronger or more of a man than one at 300. (Ambassador Comments: Shockingly, it appears that Mr. Trump’s Secretary of Defense did not feel it necessary to check with medical professionals before proposing a medical solution to what Hegseth apparently sees as sagging military prowess. The basis of Hegseth’s concerns is, for this embassy, also a mystery.)

Secretary Hegseth might want to consider information developed after decades of studying testosterone. When testosterone levels are low, a patient will experience symptoms like extreme fatigue, low libido or drastic muscle loss. Normal, per Nautilus/Science ranges of testosterone is a “vast range,” between “300 to 1,000 nanogram per deciliter.” And, testosterone levels do not indicate actual strength, “training, sleep and nutrition matter far more.”

And, finally, again, per Dr. Stanaland, “Decades of research undercut Hegseth’s core claim that more testosterone means a more aggressive, dominant, masculine man.” (Ambassador Comments: Unsurprisingly, the men in charge of health and war fighting under US President Donald Trump have no earthly idea what it takes to be an effective, healthy war fighter. Instead, Hegseth and Kennedy appear to have spent too much time with GI Joes and Hollywood movie examples of macho war fighters and not enough time with actual military training and strategy professionals who have actually, and valiantly, served. )

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