JUST SAY NO

Gay Teens More Likely To Use Steroids Than Straight Teens

A recent study by Dr Aaron Blashill and a team of researchers at The Fenway Institute in Boston found that gay and bi teenagers are using steroids at a rate of nearly six times higher than straight teens.

“It’s no different than getting my hair dyed,” one steroid user said. “It’s just what it is.”

Now, the folks at Daily Xtra have created an infographic to help put these startling statistics into perspective.

Steroids, of course, are a synthetic testosterone used by some men to increase body hair and muscle growth.

The study looked at over 17,000 teenage males from 2005-2007 with a median age of 16. 635 of them (four percent) identified as gay or bisexual. Of that group, 21 percent of gay and bisexual teens had tried steroids, as compared to only four percent of straight ones.

The irony in all this is that synthetic testosterone was once used to treat homosexuality. Beginning in the 1920s, Viennese urologist Robert Lichtenstern tried implanting pieces of human testicle into gay men in an attempt to “cure” them. That practice lasted until the 1940s, when it was determined the injections were increased gay men’s libidos.

Check out Daily Xtra’s infographic below. 

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