Should I Start Taking TRT? (SERIOUS QUESTION)

The interest in TRT or testosterone replacement therapy has skyrocketed in recent years, perhaps most disturbingly in the younger population. In this video, I discuss how out of hand the situation has become and urge a return to normal where hard work and effort trump the rush to alternative methods

What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere Athleanx. com. Look, I’ve been training for over 25 years, and I’ve seen it all. I’ve heard it all, but I haven’t  quite seen things that are as disturbing as this.

For all the years up to this point, what people  focused on was nutrition, workout routines, solid interest in bettering their physiques, and getting  themselves in shape. There is such a disturbing trend right now where those search terms and  even those interests have been replaced by TRT or interest in TRT, SARMs, Peptides,  Ozempic. You’ve got things like diet plan, we all used to think was the way we lost weight,  being dramatically eclipsed in interest level by Ozempic, a drug given to Type 2 diabetes patients  that is being abused by people as a means of losing weight rather than following a diet plan. You’ve got people who are googling TRT at a much higher rate. At the same time, you see a steep  drop off in one of the most classic search terms of all time when it comes to workouts, chest  workout.

Everybody loves International Chest Day. You literally see a decline in chest workout  in favor of TRT. We need to talk about this. If you think about these alternative solutions for  adding muscle or losing weight, does it ever cross your mind that they may not be safe either short  term or long term? And then when you apply the fact that these solutions are increasingly relied  upon by younger kids in their 20s, it becomes even that much more disturbing.

The effort and the  interest in even putting out the effort initially to see how well you do in terms of building your  body is gone by the wayside in favor of opting for one of these solutions rather than actually  putting in the hard work. And there’s actually interesting data around this. So, if you look back  in terms of usage, there was a pretty heightened spike in interest around the 2005, 2006 time, you  can see it here. That actually came down and then has seen a resurgence of late, especially as it  becomes more solution that people are relying upon, whether they need it or they don’t. Do  you know that the only age group that didn’t see sort of a wavering during that time period  is the 18 to 34 age group?

They’ve only seen it steady increase from 2014 till now. Why? Do you  really honestly think that that many young guys are hypogonadal and in need of testosterone  replacement therapy? I mean, be, be honest. Let’s fucking be serious here, honestly.

And before  you answer that, why is it that there’s also this increased willingness for people to simply say,  “Oh yeah, I’m on TRT? ” You and I both know what that means. That in a small percentage of people  who actually need it, it’s a valid statement, and a large percentage of young guys who say  that it’s a soft launch for I’m on steroids. You know it. It’s like I’m going to it’s a test  study on how my friends and family react to me telling them that I’m on steroids, but I’m going  to kind of ease them in with saying I’m on TRT.

Oh, the 200mg of testosterone I’m taking right  now, totally prescribed TRT. I need it. First of all, I don’t know many people that need  that much testosterone. And even those that are taking lesser dosages probably don’t need  that much either. It’s become an on-ramp or an excuse for people.

And I’m sorry if you’ve  taken that road and you feel offended by this. I have to call it out because I don’t think that  there’s an evaluation of the potential risk. Now, I don’t want to turn this video into their  dangerous or all of these things are dangerous. A lot of them are frankly untested. Some of  them actually show benefits, but they’re still untested.

They haven’t been around that long,  when you talk about peptides and SARMs, relatively speaking. You don’t have a lot of long-term data  that talks about its safety to validate your use of them. And people who actually have been relying  on these things as crutches for a lack of effort just simply pisses me off because you haven’t even  tried. You haven’t even tried. Or you might be a fitness model and think you need to do this stuff.

There are plenty of those out there too. And then they have the gall to make the video about  needing TRT because they were Hypogonadal. I don’t — I’m not buying it. Now, I’m not saying  that it doesn’t happen. I shared in a previous video a friend of mine has a son who was on TRT,  and he had a pretty much zeroed-out testosterone level, his free testosterone were in the, were  in the toilet.

So of course, living his — the rest of his life like that wasn’t going to be  a solution. But for every one of those guys, there are 100 who never even need to touch the  stuff. And again, you might argue the safety of it. We can all agree that there are some common  risks of increased prostate size, potentially, I’m just laying them out there. An increased  hematocrit or thickening of the blood that could lead to issues, cardiovascularly.

There are hair  loss risks. There are issues with apnea, sleep apnea. Are you evaluating the potential risks,  though? Are you even concerned about the potential risks? And I actually think that this is an area  where people aren’t — the younger guys these days don’t give a shit.

If you look at TikTok, you’ve  got clear evidence of that, whether you’re eating Tide pods or fucking putting beeswax on top of  your eyelids, so you don’t fall asleep and you’re causing blindness or you’re doing a blackout  challenge. I mean, there — for what? For views? You clearly aren’t evaluating the risks. And when  it comes to me, I’m a risk evaluator.

I’m a risk assessor. And risk assessment has probably led  me to not do things that I would have potentially wanted to do. Like, I’m not going to bullshit you  as a kid, I was a skinny kid. The ideal and the allure of steroids are something to build muscle  at a faster rate was high for me, very high. And I shared before how I did have a fear that my father  would kick my ass if he ever found out and throw me out of the house as a valid reason for me never  to touch it.

But even beyond that, I was assessing risk even back then. My own personal risk of  longevity. A guy who looked at a life ahead of me and said, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I’ve  never wanted to be on the leading edge of that research. They all may be proven to be safe.

SARMs  and peptides and TRT and everything else may all be proven safe. I may be the asshole years from  now thinking, Geez, I wish I took that. You know, some of the same studies that talked about the  heart-destructive potential for TRT came back and said it’s actually heart protective. That could  be a cool thing. That could be great.

So, it could be actually something we all should be taking  as men as we get older. But I don’t think the research proves that yet. And as I said, I don’t  want to be on that leading edge of research. And here’s the reason why I don’t think we need  to take those risks. And this is the big crux of the video and what gets me so heated about  this.

Because there’s an alternative that works. You know it, I know it, everyone watching the  video knows it. There’s an alternative that works if you’re willing to put in the time and the  consistency. And I’m sorry, but this is where in a world of 10-second TikToks and shorts and shit  like that, that people’s attention span has gone, that they can’t even focus on a month’s worth  of workouts or a year’s worth of workouts or, God forbid, five years worth of training and good  nutrition. They can’t think about it.

They can’t fathom the consistency that’s needed there. And  if it’s you, I feel bad because y