Educator and influencer Tanner Tattered recently appeared on the Trensparent podcast with Nyle Nayga, where he talked about the issue of young people using PEDs.
Cases of minors using PEDs are no longer isolated incidents. Tanner recounted a direct encounter that illustrates how normalized the behavior has become in some circles.
“I had a kid come up to me in the gym,” he said. “He was 17, he’s already on 500 test. All of the friends in his friend group are on test.”
The spread of gear use into high schools has reached a point where even a small percentage is cause for concern. As Tanner noted, “The fact that the percentage of high schoolers on gear is not zero is already alarming.”
What makes the trend more troubling is that it does not always originate with the teens themselves. There is documented history of parents administering anabolic roids to children, including one widely cited case involving a young child given significant doses of Anavar.
While that example represents a far-end scenario, a more subtle version plays out more frequently: a father on TRT looks at his teenage son and assumes testosterone might benefit him too.
He says: “The the child at this point has no understanding of what’s being put in his body. It’s not really their decision. In the same way that even like say a TRT dad looks at his 17-year-old son and says, ‘Yeah, like you could probably benefit from testosterone.'”
Tanner is direct about why that line of thinking falls short. “If the kid doesn’t know what that’s all about, I don’t think you should really be making that decision,” he explained.
The issue, he argues, is not just age, it is understanding, and more importantly, an understanding of permanence. He often uses a simple metaphor to drive the point home.
“One of the metaphors I say is if you’re not ready to have children, you probably shouldn’t think about getting on gear,” he said. “You think about it in the same way, as in it’s a lifelong commitment. You’re going to be responsible for this potentially forever.”
Additionally, Post-cycle therapy, or PCT, is designed to help restore natural hormone production after a cycle. However, recovery is never guaranteed. Tanner emphasizes that uncertainty in blunt terms.
“The word there is chance,” he said.
In his work, he regularly encounters men who once believed in the “just one cycle” mindset, only to face long-term hormonal consequences later.
“Dude, you took RAD 140 all throughout high school,” he said. “I don’t know what to tell you, but your hormones are shot.”
The biological risks adds the concern. Younger users are not simply smaller adults. Their brains are still developing, their neurological systems are more adaptable, and their endocrine systems are actively establishing long-term hormonal patterns. Introducing synthetic testosterone during this developmental window does not merely accelerate growth, it can permanently alter the body’s natural trajectory.
