Social media misinformation driving men to seek unneeded NHS testosterone therapy, doctors say

I’m on TRT myself at 37 years old and also a gymrat, in my 20s i had the testosterone levels of a 85 year old man. I feel like its drastically changed my life for the better & ive not actually noticed much difference in the gym.

I could get treated on the NHS but the treatment options are incredibly poor and the process to get on is painful.

Part of the problem is USA Instagram influencers are on “TRT” which is often north of 200mg/week and they get decent gym gains. Some of these guys had normal hormone levels before starting trt.

For context the TRT i’m on is 70mg/week and a normal dose is anywhere from that to low 100’s.

Its not like that in the UK but people are buying into the lifestyle. Clinics will not put you on these USA doses our guidelines are far stricter.

Some dodgy clinics exist, Eddie halls cycle from his clinic was on the inside of his kitchen cabinet in one of his videos and had some pretty high doses.

People are going crazy, they are just blasting and cruising steroid doses calling it trt… There was a guy on the TRT sub earlier who posted a 2 year transformation where he took a minimum of 250mg/week

Edit: 200 isnt blasting but its very rare for someone to need 200mg/week.

There is definitely a lot of this going around due to the rise in gym culture and what seems to be a fear of ageing amongst young people. I have considered getting tested as I do meet some of the symptoms of low testosterone and have since my twenties, however a lot of guys are just using broscience and looking for legal ways to look better in the gym. Getting a testosterone prescription is a lot easier than pushing a bit harder in the gym and with influencers pushing the idea (or just lying about training naturally) it is no wonder young men look for quick fixes.

I think it’s more about it being a topic that’s never really discussed. Statistically we are producing around 30% less testosterone than previous generations. If you do manage to get a test on the nhs the range is so ridiculous that you will be told you are normal.

Now with quick private medical test people are realising that they are actually low. Maybe it’s one of those ignorance is bliss situations where once you notice you really notice, and decide if the nhs won’t help, you will be get some illegally.

I’m still baffled of how 100s of PR folks works for the NHS and they still operate like it’s 1994 and some printed leaflets in GPs offices will inform the public.

You have to adapt, these influencers are successful precisely as they operate where the people are spending their time and you have to be there to inform people of the truth, not be stuck in 1994.

The problem is the NHS definition of “okay” is woeful. They define ‘normal’ as anything above the normal levels for an 80 year old man, which is not really enough for younger men and will leave many of them feeling lethargic. It’s one of those things that I don’t feel is properly taken seriously on the NHS, you have to go private to get it taken seriously really.

The man in this article is an endocrinologist, these people are laughed at by anyone who understands TRT.

He should stick to diabetes, he is a joke.

The “normal” range is bullshit; I was at the very bottom of it before I started private, now I’m just over the top of the range so the doctors are titrating my dose to drop it under the top, to lower the amount of test that my body converts into estrogen.

The NHS would’ve refused to treat me because I wasn’t going to die otherwise, and TRT helped take me out of a mental funk I didn’t know I was in.