In this excerpt from our podcast, we discuss the hidden danger of low testosterone when young. Low testosterone can lead to weight gain, energy loss, being unable to gain weight, and many other health problems. We look at recent studies around steroid use in younger age groups as well as our personal experiences to talk about the subject.

Transcript

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Brian Mckinley: like personal trainers. And significant amounts of money. You know TRT is definitely going to help you with body dysmorphia because most likely a lot of your problems are caused by being fat. Which is just a factual statement for people living in the United States. You are very likely to be fat at some point in your life TRT do it.

00:40:00

Garrett Soames:  Well, that's that. You have a 75% chance of being fat that's literally Yeah.

Brian Mckinley:  There you go, specifically very high chance of being fat and if your body does morphia is based on external stressors and symptoms, rather than like a mental health disorder and where it becomes one because of that, you know, being on TRT, does help with that. But like a big part of it is the whole Is the pressure of society?

Garrett Soames: Oh, well, you know, you bring up, you know, pressure and how like people are feeling this. This need to get ahead and is they actually did a recent study on steroid use in high schoolers, right? So,…

Brian Mckinley:  Okay.

Garrett Soames: so it, um, in the past, like, in the, when they first did, the study was in the 90s on average, one in 64, male high schoolers. Just on average used has tried or used steroids one in 60,…

Brian Mckinley: Okay. Yeah.

Garrett Soames: okay? Then in

Brian Mckinley: You think about your graduating class of thousands that's not rare?

Garrett Soames:  Yeah, yeah that's a huge amount but is still enough, you know? And and then in the 2000s it almost doubled. So it's about one in about 30 now. Yeah.

Brian Mckinley: Really. I wouldn't have thought that I would have thought it went down with all the regulations and…

Garrett Soames: No, it went up.

Brian Mckinley: that kind of like

Garrett Soames: So there are more and now currently today. One twelve percent of male high schoolers have used steroids 12% of male high schoolers in the United States of America have used or experimented with steroids 12% more than 10.

Brian Mckinley: you know, I mean, To be fair to be fair. There's a lot of that pressure but also men in General's testosterone is going down. So like To reach higher standards than…

Garrett Soames: Right.

Brian Mckinley: what they were supposed to have reached before these new higher levels of standard like that you need to breach while still having lower levels. I don't think it's that surprising That so many people are just steroid use.

Garrett Soames: No. No. I mean, again, I've been doing medicine for a while and you know, normally you wouldn't test it a high schooler for low testosterone. Why would you they're young? You'd think this is the prime of their life.

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: But guess what? There are high schools with hypogonadism,…

Brian Mckinley:  Happen. Yeah.

Garrett Soames: you know, I mean when you've got six year olds who now officially like have obesity and they basically start at six with obesity and then by the time they make it till they're 18, they've had 12 years of being morbidly obese. You can imagine.

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: Yes. It's very likely that these kids have hypotheism

Brian Mckinley: And and that's the trouble too because like that for me that was the age of which, what I was, I was really overweight too and…

Garrett Soames: Yeah.

Brian Mckinley: that the trouble with that is like that impacts you while you're growing. You know, that's when you're growing, that's when you actually need your levels higher to get like the body you want later in life. So like, you know, maybe it's not that wild, but it's still just kind of crazy. That there's so much pressure…

Garrett Soames:  Yeah, thank you.

Brian Mckinley: if there wasn't a pressure, no one would be doing it, right?

Garrett Soames: Right, right. No, that's like that. And that's kind of the point of what I brought it up is if It, you know, sure there are kids more kids are getting, you know, medical issues and hypogonadism. But I think the reason that that number has exponentially gone up is because more of the social pressures is now…

Brian Mckinley: Yeah.

Garrett Soames: because every good movie that's out, there is a Marvel movie with Thor and Captain America and guys with six packs, and they just amazingly fit and good looking. There and…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: again even the James Bond, like we brought up before is now six pack fit with like yoked arms and…

Brian Mckinley: Yeah, that's the standard.

Garrett Soames: does you know he's not here's prosper anymore,…

Garrett Soames: right? That's that.

Brian Mckinley: No, no.

Garrett Soames: Is the standard. So now one in 10 more than one in ten male. You know, high schoolers are now using steroids in an attempt to reach that new standard. And so again, I think again we're really this whole body dysmorphia for men has changed significantly and…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah. For a lottery.

Garrett Soames: and in fact, Yeah, there's this new term called bigorexia. And it's it's this. Yeah. It's it's just guys who feel like, they're too small. I'm too skinny. I'm too small. I need to get bigger. I need to get bigger. I need to get bigger, right? So they use more and more steroids or they use you…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: and I'll admit I had bigger Xia because I was I was the opposite. Brian. I I was extremely skinny like I was on the wrestling team so I know exactly how much I would. I was in in sophomore year.

Brian Mckinley:  Know. Okay.

Garrett Soames: You know, I was almost six feet tall at that point. I was 98 pounds. So you know like yeah I was super I was rich.

00:45:00

Brian Mckinley: Oh damn.

Garrett Soames: You could receive my ribs. You know. Like I was skinny right? And so I did I ate so much I was eating like four or…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: five thousand calories a day just to desperately try to get bigger and you know and even when you know puberty started hit and I was getting bigger and I was doing better and whatever. I was still I could never be more. I could never be muscular enough. I could never be big.

Brian Mckinley: Yeah, not…

Brian Mckinley: what you wanted.

Garrett Soames: Yeah, and…

Garrett Soames: again that I probably went through all of my 20s and even into some of my 30s with that, that type of body work it.

Brian Mckinley:  That mindset. Yeah.

Garrett Soames: Yeah, I I couldn't be more muscular and then You know, I actually reached this point where I was like 245 pounds, it's just yoked and enormously big.

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: Um, and I was in college, but all this eating to try to, you know, maintain all that I can't. I got a fever and I started taking some, Yeah, I had my, my wisdom teeth removed. I got a fever, I took a bunch of ibuprofen and that on top of all, I was trying to eat to, you know, get bigger. I basically burned a hole like straight through my stomach and, like, seriously and…

Brian Mckinley: oh,

Garrett Soames: ultimately, I nearly died. Actually, my I got so anemic I was bleeding into in internally bleeding.

Brian Mckinley:  s***.

Garrett Soames: I I lost in like in like a month, I lost like 55 pounds of, you know. And yeah.

Brian Mckinley: Muscle. That's correct.

Garrett Soames: It was almost because I was all muscle. Then so and,…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: you know, it was it took essentially Nearly dying for me to realize.

Brian Mckinley: You just you couldn't really fight the pressures and…

Garrett Soames: This is not a healthy thing. You know, and

Brian Mckinley: it's like it's not until your body starts to give out that. You like you hit the limit and the breaking point and you hit the realization point of like That s*** is unreal. How do people do that? And not everyone ever gets to hit that point and all I do is they chase a dream that doesn't exist their whole life and just sits with them. So, Like Yeah, I mean body dysmorphia is a real thing. I think it's a bigger thing than ever and there's like two things that men can do, which is like to get collectively. We need to, we need to have that body of positivity movement and we need to start like It's hard because of that, you know, everyone's hyper-masculine. Now, to kind of make up for things and it's hard to kind of want to support another guy, but like, we really need that

Brian Mckinley:  Positivity movement that women have started to get and you know beyond that. We don't want to let that toxic masculinity. Stop us from seeking. You know, hypergonadal testosterone related care, because like, I don't need anything else, I will get, probably do you live in America and you've been fat? For 16 17 years, you probably need testosterone. You're probably low. And so like, I don't know, you need to, we need that positive vibes and we need like To accept that maybe our testosterone levels are low and we should probably get them checked.

Garrett Soames: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I again I think ultimately you know, we talked about mental health before and stuff. Ultimately I think the best thing you do for your mental health is to feel good with…

Brian Mckinley: Yeah. For sure.

Garrett Soames: who you, right? And well. And that takes a lot of self-reflection and whatever, but you also have to feel good physically. So if you are suffering from symptoms of going out ism, you're never gonna be there. You're never gonna get there because no matter how positive you feel about yourself, you have to actually feel good too, right? So yeah,…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah, you do you have to be able to be alive?

Garrett Soames: Right. and so again, I think if you, if you can treat, you know, yourself and you feel better on something like TRT, then you're you're only going to,…

Brian Mckinley:  Mm-hmm.

Garrett Soames: you know, benefit as far as how you feel about how you look and, and again, about how you how comfortable you are in your own skin, So, you know, I don't know. Ultimately, again I think there's there's just a lot of societal pressures these days, you know, Instagram filters and…

Brian Mckinley:  Yeah.

Garrett Soames: all this crap, you know, and and it's not realistic. And in reality, I actually feel sorry for people, you know, who are younger because they're growing up with social media and they don't know any different and Yeah.

Brian Mckinley: Really, it's terrible. Honestly. I mean I'm pressure enough by it and I'm an adult at all. Like, Yeah,…

Garrett Soames:  Yeah.

Brian Mckinley: I don't know. It's something that needs to change. I think for men or we just need to have some type of movement like that sometime soon where like, We want to accept men, not only for if they're funny. or if they're rich but also if they're just a person who's fat And not feel pressured to do a. Lot of crazy things like Yeah you want to get healthy for helping us a sake but like Don't give body this more feel over it because the goal is set astronomically far from what's possible. You know, I think that's the goal adjustment, is what we need there. But yeah,…

00:50:00

Garrett Soames: Right.

Brian Mckinley: thank you guys for joining us. Today, we're gonna wrap up And we'll catch you guys next time. Thanks for. Thanks for watching.

Garrett Soames:  All right. See you next time.