■合成代谢雄激素类固醇(AAS)不成比例地被少数性别男性使用,AAS使用对身体和心理健康的影响还不完全清楚。
■为了了解同性恋的使用原因和医疗保健需求,双性恋,和使用AAS的同性恋男性。
■这项定性研究于2021年11月至2023年5月进行,使用自我管理的问卷和半结构化访谈,使用反身主题分析进行转录和编码。参与者是通过方便和滚雪球抽样从女同性恋招募的,同性恋,双性恋,变性人,纽约的酷儿临床中心,纽约,以及通过在线平台。所有患者自我认定为顺性和同性恋,双性恋,或者酷儿.
■需要至少连续8周使用非处方AAS的历史。
■主要结果是AAS使用的原因和对健康的影响以及与医疗保健从业人员的互动,通过采访确定。收集并分析访谈笔录。
■在对12名男性参与者进行访谈后,达到了主题饱和度(平均[SD]年龄,44[11]年),大多数参与者认为自己是同性恋(10名参与者[83%]),白人非西班牙裔(9名参与者[75%]),30多岁和40多岁(9名参与者[75%]),持有学士学位或更高学位(11名参与者[92%]),并且使用类固醇的平均(SD)为7.5(7.1)年。一名参与者(8%)自我识别为黑人,和2(17%)确定为西班牙裔。7名男性(58%)在筛查中符合肌肉畸形的标准。发现了九个总体主题,包括初始使用的内部和外部激励因素,由于有效性或担心损失而继续使用,密集的个人研究,从使用中经历的身体和情感伤害,使用基于社区的减少伤害的技术,对与医学界的互动感到沮丧,专注于停止AAS,以及对AAS非法性的担忧。
■在这项定性研究中,在顺性同性恋中使用AAS,双性恋,发现酷儿与多因素动机有关,包括可能的AAS使用障碍和肌肉畸形。尽管所有参与者都经历了使用的危害,寻求医疗帮助的男子在坚持停止AAS的从业者的支持下发现不足,因此,开发了自己的减害技术。需要进一步的研究来评估从业者教育工作的效用,社区开发的减少伤害方法的安全性和有效性,以及AAS非刑事化对该患者人群的医疗保健结果的影响。
UNASSIGNED: Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) are disproportionately used by sexual minority men, with the physical and mental health implications of AAS use incompletely understood.
UNASSIGNED: To understand the reasons for use and health care needs of gay, bisexual, and queer cisgender men using AAS.
UNASSIGNED: This qualitative study was conducted from November 2021 to May 2023 using self-administered questionnaires and semistructured interviews that were transcribed and coded using reflexive thematic analysis. Participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer clinical centers in New York, New York, as well as through online platforms. All patients self-identified as cisgender and gay, bisexual, or queer.
UNASSIGNED: History of nonprescribed AAS use for a minimum of 8 consecutive weeks was required.
UNASSIGNED: The primary outcomes were reasons for and health implications of AAS use and interactions with health care practitioners, as determined through interviews. Interview transcripts were collected and analyzed.
UNASSIGNED: Thematic saturation was reached after interviews with 12 male participants (mean [SD] age, 44 [11] years), with the majority of participants identifying as gay (10 participants [83%]), White non-Hispanic (9 participants [75%]), being in their 30s and 40s (9 participants [75%]), holding a bachelor\'s degree or higher (11 participants [92%]), and having used steroids for a mean (SD) of 7.5 (7.1) years. One participant (8%) self-identified as Black, and 2 (17%) identified as Hispanic. Seven men (58%) met the criteria for muscle dysmorphia on screening. Nine overarching themes were found, including internal and external motivators for initial use, continued use because of effectiveness or fear of losses, intensive personal research, physical and emotional harms experienced from use, using community-based harm reduction techniques, frustration with interactions with the medical community focused on AAS cessation, and concerns around the illegality of AAS.
UNASSIGNED: In this qualitative study, AAS use among cisgender gay, bisexual, and queer men was found to be associated with multifactorial motivators, including a likely AAS use disorder and muscle dysmorphia. Despite all participants experiencing harms from use, men seeking medical help found insufficient support with practitioners insistent on AAS cessation and, thus, developed their own harm reduction techniques. Further research is needed to assess the utility of practitioner education efforts, the safety and efficacy of community-developed harm reduction methods, and the impact of AAS decriminalization on health care outcomes for this patient population.