Between October 2025 and January 2026, SafePulse ran structured interviews with 500 self-identified performance-enhancing drug users across the UK. The cohort was broader than the one the existing literature describes. We want to share the three things that surprised us most.
First, the age distribution skewed older than expected: the modal respondent was between 35 and 44, not in their twenties. Second, image-focused use now clearly outnumbers sport-focused use in the sample, which matches anecdotal clinical reports but has not been cleanly quantified in UK data before. Third, and most important: only 11% of respondents had ever discussed their use with a GP, and of those, most described the conversation as unhelpful or actively harmful to the clinical relationship.
The full write-up is in preparation. We will share it first with the clinicians who collaborated on the study, and then openly.