TRT vs. trenbolone: what the looksmax crowd gets wrong

What did @greta.div actually say?

In a 48K-view TikTok, @greta.div argued that men on testosterone or steroids become physically unattractive to women, claiming "you're only making yourself attractive to other men." She drew a parallel to women on birth control supposedly being less attractive to men because of infertility signals. She also warned that testosterone use can cause permanent infertility, and conceded that TRT is acceptable only when used to restore clinically low levels to normal range.

A few claims here touch real biology. Most of it, though, is a confident misreading of how attraction actually works, what testosterone does to the male body, and what the birth control attractiveness research actually found.

Does the science back this up?

No, not in any straightforward way. The claim that exogenous testosterone makes men categorically less attractive to women is not supported by peer-reviewed research. The birth control parallel is based on a real but contested and partially retracted line of studies, and she applies it incorrectly.

Research on physical attractiveness and androgens runs in the opposite direction from her claim. Higher testosterone is associated with facial masculinity, lower body fat, and muscle development, all traits that studies have linked to perceived male attractiveness by women in multiple cultural contexts (Gangestad and Scheyd, 2005, Annual Review of Psychology). The mechanism she is implying, that women detect synthetic versus endogenous testosterone via pheromones or fertility cues, has no established scientific basis. Women are not chemoreceptors for pharmaceutical grade testosterone esters.

The infertility warning is more grounded. Exogenous testosterone suppresses the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, reducing sperm production. This is real and documented (Contraception, 2008, World Health Organization Male Contraception Task Force). Recovery is common after cessation, but not guaranteed in all cases.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

Wrong: The core premise. There is no credible evidence that women are biologically repelled by men using testosterone. The body of a man on a well-managed TRT protocol often shows the very physical traits associated with mate value in evolutionary and social psychology research.

Wrong: The birth control analogy. She says women on birth control are "physically less attractive to guys" because they are infertile. The study she is almost certainly referencing, by Alvergne and Lummaa (2010, Trends in Ecology and Evolution), found that pill users made different mate choices, not that they became less physically attractive. The research is also contested and does not support a clean causal story about perceived attractiveness.

Partially right: The infertility risk. Suppression of spermatogenesis on supraphysiological androgen doses is well documented. Her point that additional therapy (like HCG or FSH) can compensate is clinically accurate. Her claim that men could become "infertile for life" is an overstatement for most cases but not impossible, particularly after prolonged high-dose anabolic steroid use.

Right: The TRT exception. Restoring clinically hypogonadal men to normal physiological testosterone ranges is a legitimate medical intervention. That part she got correct.

What should you actually know?

If you are considering testosterone therapy for any reason, the starting point is bloodwork, not TikTok. Hypogonadism is diagnosed via serum total and free testosterone, LH, and FSH levels, interpreted by a licensed clinician. The threshold for treatment, the form of testosterone used, and monitoring protocols all depend on your individual lab values and health history.

The fertility concern is real and worth discussing with your provider before starting. Men who want to preserve fertility can ask about protocols that include HCG or clomiphene to maintain testicular function alongside testosterone therapy. This is a documented and used clinical approach (Hsieh et al., 2013, Journal of Urology).

Supraphysiological doses used in bodybuilding, what most people mean when they say "steroids," carry a genuinely different risk profile than medically supervised TRT. Cardiovascular strain, erythrocytosis, and hepatotoxicity with certain oral compounds are documented concerns. Those risks are separate from any attractiveness claim and are the ones actually worth paying attention to.

The broader claim in this video, that masculinity-signaling physical traits produced partly by androgens make men less attractive, contradicts decades of mate preference research across cultures. If you want to make decisions about your hormones, base them on your labs and a conversation with a clinician, not a viral opinion video.