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.
How about we take this to the next level?
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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.
Billy Budd
Steroids can KILL. They destroy your liver and make your balls shrink to the size of grapes.
PARKAVMAN
I’ve never known anyone that used steroids that used a diabetic syringe in their arm.
Suburban
I don’t even like having blood drawn at the doctors, not a fan of needles at all. What we do to our bodies…
misterhollywood
Yet we seem to see so many young gay guys using steroids. There is a deeper issue going on behind the “why” of it all.
QuintoLover
Most gay men are obsessed with image and labels. If you’re not hot (nice body, fit, big muscles) then you’re not hot and won’t find somebody to love you. So sad.
sejjo
I always find these surveys inconsequential and take them with a grain of salt, because no one asked me to take part. Maybe the 600 teens who were surveyed just had the propensity to use steroids. There are greater numbers of gay teens out there, and maybe only 12% overall use steroids. Maybe less. My point is that these results are nowhere near scientific.
vive
@PARKAVMAN, many guys injecting testosterone use diabetic syringes because they cause less trauma. Usually not in the arm, though.
fagburn
Journalists creduilty to junk ‘research’ never ceases to amaze me…
toberlin
I just don’t have time to do research for comparable studies but it sounds logical to me.(In Germany,you can’t buy Steroids legally)
“Please be sexy” is still more a Job for straight females.”Penetrating brains ,countries and women”(not necessarily in that order) is still more a straight man Job.
Among men who are gay non-commital sex is still more common .Physically attraction is for a lot of people enough to hook up with somebody.
Tackle
This is why I’m so skeptical of stats, research and studies: There is so much that is off here. First off, below the headline, it states a recent study. 7-9 yrs ago is not recent. 2005-07. And I would question as to why a study that’s 7-9 yrs old is being used to draw a conclusion for today? 17,000 teenage males were studied: so out of this group, 4% identified as gay or bisexual, and of that group, 21% had tried steroids, compared to only 4% of the straight ones. So that means that 96% of those in the study were straight. If tthat’s the case, isn’t 4% of 96% larger then 21% of 4%? And also thesstudy says “more likely.” More likely is not the same as actually doing it. And what if the study was done, let’s say from 2010-13. Would it still have the same results?
toberlin
Tackle:
96%=100% “straight “people
4% =100% “gay” people
so 21% Percent of the 680 gay people used steroids and only 4% of the 16320 straights.
From what I see online the gay men in the USA are looking often so pumped up.Generally men in Europe are looking less pumped.Maybe they are just lazy bums?
Tackle
@toberlin: That’s the whole USA mentality. Bigger muscles, bigger boobs for the women, bigger houses and bigger cars. We mistakenly believe that bigger is better.
toberlin
Yes,seem so.I think it is really harder to find happyness with that “livestyle”.As a Kid,most of the Parents of my friends and mine have refused to buy us Barbie or Ken.We had Playmobil.Today I know why…