The Viral Steroid Trend Targeting Teens

Seven must-read stories about STI testing, fentanyl, and emerging data linking alcohol and cancer. PLUS: How much more liberal are young women becoming?

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In this edition:

• The Viral Steroid Trend Targeting Teens

• Fentanyl Was Killing Their Friends – And No One Was Talking About It. So These Teens Stepped Up

• How the Last Eight Years Made Young Women More Liberal

• How to Get Tested for STIs: Everything You Need to Know

• Deep Links Between Alcohol and Cancer Are Described in New Report

• U.S. Overdose Deaths Plummet, Saving Thousands Of Lives

• Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes

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Photo by Nigel Msipa on Unsplash

The Viral Steroid Trend Targeting Teens (Men’s Health)

The text messages fly back and forth almost daily. Frank, a teenager in Massachusetts, will see a TikTok post from somebody like @vici.togi. Togi’s post starts with him discussing how he took “a little” of an anabolic steroid called trenbolone, then cuts to him injecting himself just above his hip, followed by clips of his muscle-building progress.

Frank will immediately send it to his gym buddy, Jesse. Then one of them will make the joke, says Frank, about “taking tren and turning into an animal and just lifting as much as I could and getting really big because of the tren.”

Not anabolic steroids. Not testosterone. Not creatine or multivitamins or a high-protein diet. No, Frank and Jesse (who both spoke on condition of anonymity because trenbolone is deemed illegal) immediately jump to trenbolone, which has quickly developed a rep for increasing muscularity and decreasing body fat all at once. Among bodybuilders it’s known as the “god of all steroids” for its potency. To teens and young men, it’s simply tren, a ticket to the prototypical social-media-friendly physique. READ MORE