It started on forums, bled into social media, and now it’s used by advertisers trying to capture the people who recognize it from forums and social media.

Interestingly, the businesses targeting this segment have pivoted into offering actual testosterone prescriptions, pill-mill style. They’ve discovered that if they can find a willing doctor then there are no consequences for writing mass prescriptions for testosterone as long as they can create a minimal paper trail documenting some symptoms. So people see an ad on social media or hear one on the radio, make an appointment, and the doctor quickly diagnoses them with “low T” based on vague symptoms like “not performing as well as I’d like in the gym”, and they get a prescription.

The business model is to charge a monthly fee such as $200/month. Once people start taking testosterone their body shuts off its natural production, meaning they feel devastated if they ever stop taking it. So the customer is hooked. Some people can discontinue and eventually recover, but most people who take it for years will have testicular atrophy such that they may never be able to live without testosterone injections again for the rest of their lives. This inconvenient fact is rarely communicated up front, of course.