When Your Man's A Steroid Junkie

’Roid use among young men is so widespread, gyms are now installing needle exchanges. But how exactly does the ‘juicing’ affect your relationship? Alex Harris racks up with Tom Powell (left) to find out 

- Alex Harris

‘I’ve always trained so I look good to pick up girls,’ Tom Powell explains, as he sets up for a deadlift. It’s half-past nine at night, the residual light from the warehouse gym is the only evidence of life inside an otherwise disused industrial estate. Tom tightens a clasp on a bar. ‘You get good feedback from girls,’ he smiles. ‘Then you get addicted.’

So he goes about his body business. He clanks through sets, racking up 210kg for squats, 270kg for deadlifts – a modern-day Adonis, but with blond highlights. The staccato soundtrack of metal warring with metal echoes around the gym. I have never felt so out of place.

Despite being dealt a genetic royal flush by the age of 18 – well over 180cm, with the kind of body that would leave a pro athletic prodding his fat bits – Tom, now 26, chose to gamble it all last year. He broke the shackles of human physiology and injected himself with a potent, body-transforming, life-changing concoction of anabolic steroids.

With his big guns and extensive tattoos, it would be easy to dismiss Tom as your classic ’roid-head. But after just 10 minutes in his company, what’s worrying me more than anything else is that he seems entirely normal.

’ROIDS ARE ALL THE RAGE

Steroids are a big business. They’re the number one most commonly injected drug in Australia over the past six years, with an alarming increase in guys aged 16 to 24 using them. Tom isn’t surprised by this. ‘Those two who were deadlifting earlier – they’re 15 and 16, and they’ve been asking me about it. I told them to come back to me when they’re 21 and we’ll talk.’

Charities and needle exchanges alike confirm that they’re seeing younger and younger men taking steroids. Is it becoming as mainstream as protein shakes and #Fitspo selfies?