13 medical conditions that can prevent you from joining the military under new Trump-era rules
Hundreds of thousands of people enlist in the military every year.
But a recent memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth provides the latest list of conditions that would disqualify people receiving a medical waiver needed to join the military.
“America’s warfighters must be physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest of conditions,” Hegseth wrote. “Severe underlying medical conditions introduce significant risks on the battlefield and threaten not only mission priorities, but also the health and safety of the affected individual and their fellow Service members.”
Waivers are typically used to elist soldiers who might otherwise be unqualified for military service due to medical, conduct or other reasons, according to The AP.
Conditions no longer eligible for a waiver are:
- Current treatment for schizophrenia
- Being an organ recipient
- A history of paraphilic disorders, which means persistent sexual interests in inappropriate objects, situations, or non-consenting people
- Needing supplemental oxygen use
- Current congestive heart failure
- Suicidal attempt in the last year
- Homicidality–thoughts or fantasies of killing others– in the last year
- Epilepsy
- Multiple sclerosis
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Trisomy 21
- Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease
- History of cystic fibrosis
The changes come after the Trump administration announced earlier this year it was banning transgender troops and reviewing conditions that require a waiver, such as missing a hand or a foot, inability to see in one or two eyes, a history of suffering a heart attack, or having a pacemaker or defibrillator.
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