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It’s Men’s Health Week at Playboy and we’re exploring the increasingly DIY state of men’s healthcare. From the peptides ruling Hollywood to the Reddit forums replacing doctors, men are taking their health into their own hands. Here’s what you need to know.
The first time I ever saw steroids, I was in the kitchen of my apartment in Wyoming.
My roommate, and college wrestling teammate Davin had just quit the team we both competed on. He was a massively muscular and heavily tattooed man, and he told me he was quitting to pursue his dream of being a bodybuilder. A few weeks after he told me had quit, I noticed Davin started getting mysterious shipments of coffee from Libya; they were being sent by a bodybuilder I had seen him talking to on Facebook.
I thought it was, to say the least, strange, I knew Davin wasn’t a big coffee guy, and also that he didn’t have any money. In fact, for weeks Davin had been so desperate for quick cash that he was talking about taking up cam modeling, telling me that he could make money flexing his muscles for guys on the other side of his laptop camera.
So how was he able to afford specialty coffee from Libya? One morning in late fall, I caved to my curiosity, stormed into the kitchen and ripped open one of the coffee bags he had left on the counter. Underneath a half inch sprinkling of coffee were bottles of Dianabol, one of the oldest and most potent steroids available on the market. I closed the bag as quick as I’d opened and left the box where it was. Davin and I never spoke of it.
He and I went our separate ways the following spring, and by the time we reconnected in 2020 Davin was working in the adult industry as a performer, a porn star operating under the name “Davin Strong.” Davin had carved out a niche for himself in both straight and gay porn with his gigantic frame. He was well over 300 pounds now, and men were paying him thousands of dollars just to touch his muscles.
He says steroids were the secret, not just for him, but for countless men that work in the porn industry in pursuit of the perfect, camera-ready body. “It can’t be understated the general pressure to accelerate [muscle growth] or give yourself a leg up by using them,” says Davin.
According to adult film star Carlos Alexander, who first started filming porn in the mid 2000s, the use of steroids has long been commonplace, particularly among gay stars who he says feel pressured to meet the demands of the male gaze. “ I think it’s been very common since the 1980s,” Alexander says, “ and I think it’s also simultaneously always been deeply stigmatized.”
Alexander says that he first started out in the industry as a twink, slang in the gay community for a young looking man with little to no body hair, and that he began to use steroids in the early 2010s because of insecurities about his body that were exacerbated by the number of ripped men that surrounded him, both in the adult industry and the broader gay community. “ I had always disliked being skinny,“ Alexander tells me. “ I was always playing catch up with guys that had literally started bodybuilding in their teens.”
It isn’t just the porn industry, Hollywood A-listers have only gotten more and more muscular in recent decades, and online fitness content that openly discusses the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) like steroids, testosterone replacement therapy, and peptides has exploded in popularity. One content creator, Kenny KO, has achieved massive reach with short form videos asking bodybuilders and fitness creators if they are “natty or not” (natty is slang for natural, as in steroid-free). While Youtube creator Derek Munro, better known as “More Plates More Dates,” hits millions of views with content speculating about potential PED stacks of celebrities like podcaster Joe Rogan and boxer Ryan Garcia. The rise of looksmaxxing has also brought attention to steroids, between clips of online figures like Clavicular and Androgenic discussing their buccal fat removal and rhinoplasty surgeries, the use of testosterone is also a frequent subject.
This has all contributed to an environment where the use of PEDs is more destigmatized than ever before. Dr. Thomas O’Connor, an internal medicine specialist who runs a concierge medical service catered towards testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in Florida, tells me that his patients include actors, rock stars, and NFL players.
“They’re all on steroids.” Dr. O’Connor says.
Porn has been no exception. Dr. O’Connor tells me that he has seen between 30 and 40 adult film stars with issues related to anabolic steroid-induced hypogonadism, a condition where the introduction of exogenous hormones causes the body to shut off its own production of testosterone. That condition can cause, among other things, a shrinking of the testicles, erectile dysfunction, and infertility. This is particularly a problem when you are expected to get hard and stay hard for hours on set.
Dr. O’Connor tells me that many of his patients in the adult industry would attempt to self medicate with Viagra or Cialis, but that the hormone deficits created by hypogonadism would still prevent many of them from achieving erection. “The blood flow ain’t the problem, dude,” Dr. O’Connor tells me. “You need an intact endocrine system.”
Despite the risks, the destigmatization of PED use in broader men’s culture has trickled into porn, particularly the straight side of the industry, where steroid and testosterone use has historically been less commonplace than its gay counterpart. “Straight, mainstream male stars are surely frequenting the gym more, probably a result of the times, and for that reason we’ll probably continue seeing an uptick in the usage of PEDs across the board,” says Peter Hooke, an adult film star who has worked in both sides of the industry.
Hooke first started using steroids shortly after his 18th birthday, a decision partly inspired by his admiration of now-deceased online fitness influencers Zyzz and Rich Piana. After some time off, he came back to them in 2023 when he got on testosterone due to feeling lethargic and low energy, prompting him to get his hormone levels checked.
Hooke says that although he doesn’t think steroid use is rampant yet in the straight side of the adult industry, he has noticed an uptick in his fellow adult film stars asking him about his cycle. “Male talent want to look their best on camera, regardless, and there is an expectation for us to be somewhat in shape. After all, it’s an athletic performance,” Hooke says.
On top of testosterone, Hooke tells me he uses a cycle of HCG, a fertility drug that boosts sperm production and offsets some of the testicular shrinkage and fertility issues that are a hallmark of TRT and steroid use. But Dr. O’Connor warns this drug can only offset these side effects for a time, and that the body eventually develops a tolerance.
For Davin? A potential bonus. “Now, I don’t need a vasectomy!” he tells Playboy.
Hooke argues that these drugs will only become more common across all corners of men’s culture. He thinks it’s unlikely the adult industry, where men are more than willing to inject Viagra directly into their penises, will have any hangups long term about their use. “We have plenty of stars that put a needle in their dick to work, I’m sure a needle in the buttcheek is pretty low-stakes,” Hooke says.