You can go into any single gym
and buy steroids within five minutes of being in there.
If you train properly, diet properly, take this shit,
you’re going to feel indestructible.
Who doesn’t want to feel like that?
They’re very powerful hormones.
But with any drugs, there’s always payback.
But when there's a drug that does the job,
it’s a hard argument to say, ‘well, don’t use it.’
Every time you take this shit, you're risking your fucking life.
You know, it's a lottery.
Fucking hell.
An estimated half a million young men in
the UK are addicted to steroids.
In fact, the Class C drug is the second most used drug
after cannabis.
-Mate, so when you train, -I’ve never done it.
the pump is unreal.
But steroids come with some pretty alarming side effects,
including liver and kidney failure.
We’ve got a lot of medication for the heart failure
and the heart attacks.
As well as mood swings and increased estrogen,
which results in men needing breast reduction surgery.
I want to take a look inside the steroid epidemic
from the dealers selling it to the young men taking it.
Why is a generation of young men getting hooked on roids?
I'm just outside Cardiff in the valleys right now,
and we're about to see Tom Powell.
If it sounds familiar,
it's because he was in season two of Love Island.
He's been openly taking steroids for a number of years now.
Do you still think there’s like bad connotations with steroid use
and that whole stigma of your balls will shrink?
That’s not a stigma. That’s fucking true.
Yeah, my balls are tiny.
Well, my balls are pretty small.
He uses his platform to teach young men how to take them safely.
Tom, take me back. What was your physique like before steroids?
Back in school, I was a chubby little kid.
So for years, for years, I was.
Until I realized girls don’t like fat guys.
When did you start taking steroids?
Five months after Love Island.
Was being on camera, did that affect how you saw yourself?
Yeah. I felt pressure to stay in shape more.
It wasn't the reason why I jumped on steroids.
It was a contributing factor.
Obviously, I wanted to look good all the time,
because you’re constantly in the public eye.
The main reason why I went on Love Island
is because I wanted to become a sponsored athelete.
I met the guys that I wanted to become, you know,
and I asked them straight away.
I was like, ‘Boys, talk to me about steroids. Are you on them?’
And they said,
‘Yeah, you can’t get anywhere in this industry without them.’
You can go into any single gym
and buy steroids within five minutes of being in there.
That's nuts, man.
They're very, very available.
So what's the biggest you've ever got?
120 kilos lean.
Five, six years ago, when I first started taking steroids
I wanted to be these topless influencers that were shredded.
I wanted to be that.
And now I realize that that was the wrong way to go about it.
And that's not what the fitness industry should be.
I take TRT now, which is called testosterone replacement therapy.
It's a very low level of testosterone.
It's not for muscle gains, it's just for replenishment of me.
I’ve actually got a jab now if you want to see it.
Yeah, of course. Yeah.
Long term steroid use impairs your testosterone production,
resulting in symptoms like fatigue, anxiety and low libido.
Tom has to take TRT,
a prescribed light steroid, to help balance his hormones.
Where would you inject it?
Today is my bum. Unfortunately for you.
I’m here for the ride. Let’s go.
There's a certain V in your ass where you're not supposed to go.
So I’m going to be going around here.
Wipe the area first.
I never thought I’d be staring intently
into someone’s bum cheeks today, but...
Cap off, push all the air bubbles out.
And that’s ready to go.
There we have it.
And then I’ll go wipe.
Wipe all around the area.
And that is all done.
And that didn't hurt?
At all.
When you first started taking it, what were the side effects?
This is when I was taking tren in my third cycle,
so I had a lot.
My mood swings were up and down, night terrors,
which is horrible dreams every single night.
-Couldn’t keep a hard on. -Damn.
I looked incredible. I looked lean.
I was full. I was, you know, it was great. But I felt like death.
You did something mad recently,
like you were having a surgery
and then you live streamed it.
Yeah. I had gyno surgery.
Gyno is a buildup of estrogen behind the nipple.
I'm estrogen sensitive.
So when I was taking steroids,
my estrogen built up and stuck behind my nipple, basically,
and it was causing pain.
-Ugly pec. -Minging titties.
Why did you live stream it, bro?
To raise awareness. I know it was a bit crazy.
The more people that sees, the more people it reaches,
the more people are going to see it and maybe get checked out.
So I thought, yeah, why not go live?
I’m trying to enlighten people about the use of steroids,
bodybuilding and they get so shredded
they lose their sex drive.
And we as a community epitomize these these people with six packs.
And actually these guys are so not healthy.
Women lose their periods for life sometimes not just
a couple of weeks just by doing a couple of bodybuilding shows.
And people don't realize this.
Let's say I'm a young person trying to get into the fitness industry
and I want to be the next gymfluencer.
Would you advise me to take steroids?
Find your own path.
I wanted to be in the industry so much
I listened to what anyone else did. Do your own journey.
Thomas suffered numerous side effects
from his years of steroid use,
including having to do breast reduction surgery
as a result of gynecomastia.
The surgeon who performed Tom's operation,
the self-proclaimed King of Gyno, Dr. John,
warns that tens of thousands of men are now at risk
of needing the surgery due to steroid use.
How many gynecomastia surgeries would you say you do in a week
due to steroids?
I do about 2 to 3 a day.
So if we say half of them are due to steroids,
we're talking about 15 in 5 days.
So about 7 or 8 probably from from steroid use.
Wow.
But I'm the king of gyno. I mean.
Dr. John is letting us film his next breast reduction surgery.
His patient, Grant, is already in the waiting room.
Hey, what’s up, bro?
-You alright? -I’m all good. I’m all good,
-how are you feeling? -Nervous.
Why are you getting this done?
Everyone I speak to, no one notices it on me.
But for me, it's a self confidence thing.
I've always had like, a little bit of it when I was younger.
So as soon as I hit like 16,
you get it when like some people hit it through puberty.
And then I started using steroids and it just kind of never left
and just got worse and worse and worse as I got bigger and bigger
But as you’re a big lump,
you don't really think about it.
But if you go into places like Ibiza and Marbella
and stuff like that and you're taking your shirt off
and you're surrounded by other people that do steroids that
haven't got it, people notice it.
Talk us through your steroid use.
When was the first time you started taking it?
-Eighteen. -Eighteen?
Yeah. So I’ve been on and off it for ten years.
I started going to the gym, seeing nothing, seeing nothing.
And I was like, ‘Do you know what? I’m just going to jump on a course.’
Took some tablets and started getting bigger
and kind of never looked back.
Is it more for fitness or is it more of like an aesthetic?
I am so unfit.
Honestly.
At my biggest I was about 17.5 stone.
I couldn’t walk up stairs.
Generally, my breathing was terrible.
I was just carrying so much excess weight I didn't need.
It’s never about the fitness.
It's about the recovery so I can get bigger and bigger.
And when all your mates are sitting at like 70 kilos,
you look like the biggest in the group.
And it’s nice. It’s a nice feeling.
-Are you still on steroids right now? -Yeah.
This hasn’t stopped you?
No.
I think the problem is, I’m so far into it now
and I wish I’d never started, but now I’m on it, it’s too late.
Dr. Jones is ready for you now.
-Good luck my guy. -See you later.
-You got this, man. -Yeah.
Grant, how do you feel?
Nervous, currently.
Is it ticklish right now?
No, it's alright at the moment.
This is the stuff that’s hanging out
and here is the actual glands we’re going to remove.
After applying a local anesthetic,
the surgeons have filled Grant’s breasts up with a liquid
to help with the procedure.
What are the dangers and risks of this operation?
I would think that the most common risk is getting a hematoma.
So the body wants to heal it
and wants to push blood into your chest.
Other risks; nipple inversion. Nipple necrosis.
But there’s different ways to prevent that.
Alright, just going to set the vaser now,
melt all the fat and break apart the gland as much as possible.
Next, they’re going to extract the fat
like they would with liposuction.
So what this does is break apart the fat
and the pseudogland inside is partially fat
and partially fibrous tissue.
So we break apart the fatty parts.
You’d be surprised at how much fat is in there.
To be fair, I did offer somebody
a grand if they drink some of that.
Can we up it to five grand?
That’s so fucking painful.
Fuck.
Fucking hell.
It's a girl!
Yay!
Oh wow!
That is fucking horrible.
I never knew that this is what a gland looks like.
Urgh, that is such a weird thing.
Urgh.
That's making me feel ill.
I genuinely can’t believe
those massive glands came out of Grant’s body.
Honestly, if that doesn’t put you off taking steroids,
I genuinely don't know what will.
Since steroids are illegal to sell in the UK,
where do they come from?
I'm in an undisclosed location and I'm about to meet
an international steroid dealer who makes steroids in his kitchen.
Yo,
What’s going on right now?
So basically, add a solution of nandrolone or ‘deca’.
We've got the raw powder here.
Put a couple of chemicals in there
and I’m just finishing it off with some seed oil.
This is the carrier. This is the solution.
But how do you get the right ingredients for it?
Well, I mean, if you're buying it, you know,
over the Internet or even from from your local dealer,
you don't know what the fuck you're getting.
Especially when you're injecting it straight into your muscle.
Has it got hairs in it?
Has it got bits of fucking shit floating in it
that’s going to give you sepsis?
What’s the wildest things that you’ve heard
being put inside steroids?
Well, I've seen some very dirty conditions.
You know, smoking cigarettes over it
and the ashes dropping in.
It's not getting filtered.
I’ve seen people have injections and them go bad,
they have to have their whole leg cut open and drained.
It’s fucking risky. It’s risky.
There's not a lot of people actually making this shit.
So the guy in the gym who’s telling you,
‘Yeah. Yeah. This is the best gear.’
How the fuck do they know? Do you know what I mean?
Every time you take this shit,
you’re risking your fucking life.
You know, it’s a lottery.
Unless you’re making this yourself
or getting it from a pharmaceutical company,
you don’t know what the fuck is in it.
You're the most honest drug dealer I've ever heard in my life.
Not everybody who makes and sells drugs is trying to kill people
and rinse them.
Do you know what I mean?
You know, it’s, it’s a gray area,
You know what I mean?
Ethical drug dealer. Yeah.
What would you say is like, your demographic?
It breaks my heart to say it, but 16 to 24 year olds.
Sixteen?
Just as they sort of coming through puberty and there’s,
you know, young guys wanting to just be buff or whatever.
If you train properly, diet properly, take this shit,
you're going to feel indestructible.
Who doesn't want to feel like that?
All of these ingredients are, like, easily sourced?
Yeah, easily.
The chemicals are just household everyday items.
Sourcing the raws, you have to order them from abroad,
get them shipped in.
And that’s the riskiest part if customs sees it.
But that’s all they’ll do.
The risk reward, if you’re comparing it to other drugs, I mean,
It’s insane, the returns you can get.
It wouldn’t be uncommon for us on a bad month to make 50 grand.
On a good month. Make 100 grand.
On a bad month, fifty grand?
So easy. This filter paper on here, it's just a very fine membrane.
If this is not filtered, you are for sure going to have big problems.
Okay? You're going to have gaping holes in your ass
or in your shoulder or whatever with poison coming out.
So this step is very important.
You’ve got here, finished product,
just do it by eye.
So now you’ve got your bottle
that goes on. There you go. Okay.
This is nuts.
And if you put a light through it, you should see it's clean.
There should be no particles in there. That's a that's a good tip.
Actually, if you do buy gear, get a light on it.
If there’s shit floating in the gear, don’t take it. Don’t take it.
Cap comes off.
There you go.
Made in what, 30 minutes?
No time at all.
That's crazy.
Powerful shit. It’s not to be abused man.
So what would you say
to any young person
who’s thinking about taking steroids?
Don't fucking take it. It'll ruin your life.
No fucking teenage boy anywhere in in this fucking world
needs to be takin anabolic steroids.
Unless they’ve got a real medical issue
that needs it, you know?
But I mean, kids taking fucking Tren?
Come on, man, You're going to fuck yourself up.
You're going to fuck yourself up
and you’re not going to come back from it and you’ll look like shit.
You can’t fucking shag your bird.
You know what I mean?
You've got no interest in life, you know what I mean?
It's like, do you really want it?
John is making 50 to 100,000 pounds a month
from making steroids in his kitchen.
Who’s to say other dealers aren’t doing the same thing but worse?
You don’t know what they’re putting in there
just to try and increase profit margins.
So a lot of steroids that are available in the market,
might be unsafe and it could lead to,
definitely infections,
septicemia
and you might even have limbs removed.
It worries me that even the dealer
is warning people not to take steroids.
But for some athletes competing in the bodybuilding industry,
they would argue that taking steroids is a necessity.
Okay, every single athlete today,
it will be their first time ever on a bodybuilding stage.
So we do need to give them lots and lots of support.
We have our first athletes ready, I believe.
With the bodybuilding community,
do you think any of them would have been using steroids
in their preparation?
At this particular show, I imagine most people will.
Oh, ok. So is it like an open secret with bodybuilders?
Yeah, so there’s two different types of federation.
So Fit X is a federation that doesn’t drug test the athletes.
There are certain ones who do.
So obviously no one there will be.
But at Fit X, I imagine it’s most of, if not everyone
Ok. So as you said, no drug testing,
-probably no stigma towards that. -No, no definitely.
Have you ever tried steroids?
Yeah, I think it was 22 when I started taking it properly.
What's your stance on some of your athletes maybe taking steroids?
Do you advise it or not?
It’s a good question.
And I feel like it’s something
that someone needs to come to the conclusion themselves.
I'm going to then try best advise you to do it in a safe manner.
A lot of men definitely have body dysmorphia
and they take the steroids to make themselves feel better,
but it ends up having a negative effect.
Have you or anybody else, do you know,
are they taking steroids for preparation for this?
-I do take steroids. -Oh, you do take steroids?
I do take steroids, yeah.
Yeah, but it's all controlled. It's not abused.
I have my bloods taken,
before and after a course
to minimize any risks they may pose.
Would I promote it and advise somebody to do it? No, I wouldn't.
But for me, I'm competing against others that do it.
-Yeah. -You have to stand a chance.
-Even the playing field for you. -Exactly.
If competitions don't test for steroid use, hence allowing it,
those competing often think
that they won’t stand a chance without it
since every single user I’ve spoken to
says that they wouldn’t advise anyone to take roids,
surely they should be banned from competitions altogether.
David Crossland, a former steroid user and bodybuilder,
has turned his efforts to harm reduction.
So Dave, what do you do nowadays?
Probably the easiest way to describe E-Val
is a blood testing company
for people with alternative lifestyles.
It's just about minimizing
the harms that people expose them to.
Be that steroids, or be that recreational drugs.
Let's get into your story in particular.
You're a pretty big lad, I'm telling you,
like the biggest guy I've seen so far.
How did you first get into using steroids?
I started steroids at 19.
I finished steroids at 24,
at which point I was very large,
not in bad condition,
and had the potential to turn pro as a bodybuilder.
And then I tore my left pec completely off.
That sort of ended that.
And then I spiralled into depression.
The renal specialist basically said I outgrew my kidney’s capability
of managing my physique,
so I’m stage four kidney failure.
And that will never get better.
Is that a lot of medication now? Like a whole lifestyle change?
No, not really. Not from the kidneys.
I’ve got a lot of medication for the heart failure
and the heart attacks, but not from the kidneys.
Heart attacks.
Plural. Heart Attacks.
Well I had a heart attack, an official heart attack,
an official myocardial infarction in end of November last year.
Do you know anybody who's died because of steroid usage?
It's difficult to say that someone's died because of steroids.
Are there people that have pass
that steroids may have played a significant role in it?
Yes, without doubt.
You can’t O.D. on steroids, you know what I mean?
You can’t go and take too many and drop dead.
-Yeah. -It’s a time thing.
It’s a constant abuse situation.
So what advice would you give
to an 18 year old possibly considering taking steroids?
I have people come to me on a weekly basis
that I’m telling them they’re now testosterone dependent
or they’re now infertile.
And they’re shocked by that revelation.
You know, there is risk with these drugs.
Learn the risks you're taking
and then decide if those risks are worth those rewards.
Steroid use is rife in the UK
and it’s extremely easy to get your hands on them,
trapping men in a cycle that seems hard to break.
From what I've learned,
a lot of men turn to steroids when they're feeling self-conscious.
With social media platforms often perpetuating the narrative,
feeding us unrealistic body images.
Ironically, the side effects can sometimes make men even more
self-conscious and in some cases be fatal.
There needs to be more education available
on the impact steroids can have on men’s lives,
because if people are aware of the potential risks,
I doubt so many would take them.
Good work out, bro.
I’m tired, man. I wanna go to sleep.