This is your body on T...

Call me silly and spank my but, but I didn't know this was that common. I know that Trans men use T (several of my friend do), but regular dudes? Why? Well, I went looking for an explanation and got an eyeful.

That seems especially true in the gay community. While steroids — a word used to describe natural hormones like testosterone and estrogen, as well as synthetic chemicals that can mimic their effects — are used by 3.3% of the global population, some research suggests significantly higher rates among queer men. One 2002 study found that 13.5% of gay gym goers in London were actively using anabolic androgenic steroids, or the synthetic versions of testosterone. Another, from 2017, found that 5.2% of gay and bi men in Australia were on the drugs. And a 2019 survey of gay and bi gym goers in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood discovered 21.6% had used steroids at some point.

@them

Those numbers sound like they mean something. But I should not be surprised, right? It's well known in the Gaydom that muscle mass and definition gets the dick. It's kinda simple: low body fat and visible abs are apparently the thing. Of course, all those muscles and all that definition come with a price:

He’s convinced he’s been able to dodge some of the most debilitating side effects by testing his blood regularly — lab work made essential by the fact that side effects can be deadly. Anabolic steroids can cause severe, long-lasting and occasionally irreversible damage, according to the National Institute of Health, including an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and an inability to recreate one’s own testosterone after using them. Mental health effects are also common: studies have found increased rates of paranoia, depression, violence, and risk-taking behaviors among regular steroid users. One study, from 2021, found that prolonged use of anabolic steroids can even cause the brain to age prematurely.

@them

I low key like this man better before the steroids...

But you knew it was coming. Messing with nature does have side effects. Duh. Funny how so many men are into this (and not only men over sixty or seventy who may have low testosterone due to age, but men in their late twenties and thirties!) and it kind of left me a little bit shaken. I knew that men living with HIV would use steroids, for example, but I had no idea that Joe Schmoe on Instagram may have been getting injections, too:

He’s also far from alone in what brought him to use the drugs in the first place. Social media, bodily insecurities, intracommunity pressure, and more have driven hundreds of thousands of gay men to turn to steroids to attain a more muscular body. And while the drugs are nothing new within the gay community, modern phenomena — from a burgeoning industry of online testosterone doctors, who make getting on T easier than ever, to the rise of OnlyFans and its proliferation of buff content creators — has fueled their normalization and continued usage.

@them

The results may be obvious and the before/after is probably shocking, but where do people get that idea that we have to compete with the incredibly fake social media world? Really? Everybody knows those photos are staged/photoshopped. Everybody knows that OnlyFans is not real and that one thing we should definitely NOT trust are online 'doctors'. You'd think people are much more aware than that. And you'd be wrong. 

Wait, what? Why?

So there you have it. A healthy man getting T could make his natural testosterone plummet, make him prone to infections, depression, abscesses, losing hair on their heads and gaining it... on their backs and high red blood count that makes them have periodic blood draws. Not to mention having to inject Trimex in their dick 'cause it won't work. All for a body that another men would covet and admire. And then... what??

XOXO