Kade was 21 years old when he started injecting testosterone.

On the surface, he looked like the picture of health, but he didn’t feel like it.

He felt unmotivated and anxious, so anxious he couldn’t drive.

“I had very low energy.

I had very low motivation.

Things changed when his primary-care doctor ran extensive blood work and found just one red flag.

He had low testosterone levels, in the range of 219 to 239 nanograms per deciliter.

At 25, he feels like a new man, he said.

He’s healthy, muscular, lean, full-bearded, and horny.

He said his sex drive is “uncaged.”

People comment on his page asking for more information about his doses.

He tells them to check out LaSara Medical Group, a virtual clinic for men’s sexual health.

(LaSara confirmed Kade gets free treatments in exchange for referrals.)

Kade’s story is not unique.

More recent data, while limited due to inconsistent monitoring, suggests the rate is steadily climbing.

This trend tells a story of a new kind of gender-affirming care, but for cisgender men.

Nearly two decades later, the search continues, with male insecurity as a stand-in condition.

But the story of today’s testosterone clinics begins in 2017, with Viagra coming off patent.

Testosterone therapy promises to make you more muscular, hornier, and more driven.

By conventional definitions, it promises to make you more of a man.

Most men are approved for treatment.”

Other clinics, such as LaSara, require blood work to be done in an affiliated lab first.

You pay a couple hundred dollars a month, which covers your lab work and injection therapy.

Some clinics offer discounts if you sign up for six months or a year at a time.

“Guys are hanging out in the lobby, watching ESPN, eating fruit snacks,” he said.

Does it work?

Testosterone levels also fluctuate throughout a man’s life, even within a given day.

Derek searched for clinics online and arrived at Gameday Men’s Health.

A year and a half of weekly injections later, he can’t contain his excitement.

“I love testosterone.

I would never stop taking testosterone, ever,” he told me on the phone.

These days, he said, he has enough energy to work two jobs seven days a week.

But things changed in his 40s.

Within four weeks, he noticed increased energy levels, and his wife noticed a spike in his libido.

A year later, he’s sold on the importance of maintaining your T levels.

“I don’t know why it’s not more talked about.”

Will TRT work for every man like it has for Kade, Derek, and Dana?

There is no denying that low testosterone has genuine health impacts.

Prescribing TRT to healthy young men is a controversial practice within mainstream medicine.Studies have found the benefitsto be mixed.

Plus, the downsides are real: hair loss, acne, and a possibleworsening of sleep apnea.

“They were coming for fertility care.

And basically, I was like, ‘Well, are you on TRT?’

And they’re like, ‘Yeah.’

I was like, ‘Well, that kills your sperm.'”

Six of the seven companies offered him testosterone despite the contraindication.

“It was a pretty awakening study for me,” he said.

This is not your primary-care doctor taking a holistic perspective of your health needs.

Crucially, these clinics do not cater to trans men.

Clinic directors proudly shared with me the diversity of their patients from bricklayers to CEOs.

When I asked about transgender care, they demurred.

That’s something else, they said.

Too complicated, too specific.

Snedegar told me his clinic took only “biological men.”

Some social scientists have expressed concern about the implications this trend has for broader cultural understandings of masculinity.

In 2019, the American Psychological Association issued its first-everwarningabout the perils of masculinity.

The implication is that the only thing between you and unbridled manly perfection is a will and a syringe.

Medicalized masculinity has higher stakes, Berumen said.

There are some upsides to the expansion of DTC men’s health.

These clinics are also helping men forge networks of support.