If you’ve been online in the past couple of years, you might have heard of “looksmaxxing” – a word that began its life in digital “manosphere” spaces during the 2010s, but which has entered the mainstream more recently.

Perhaps most famously, online streamer Clavicular claimed to have begun “looksmaxxing” starting at 14 through a combination of exercise, steroids, surgery, and taking a hammer to his face.

But while most cases don’t involve hand tools, doctors have seen people go to increasingly “extreme” measures to achieve the perfect skin, body, and hair. That might involve “stacking” high-strength products like prescription retinols together until they cause burning, or taking sometimes risky diet pills or supplements with dubious claims.

In an interview with HuffPost UK, Professor Geeta Nargund – fertility expert and founder of Health Equality Foundation – said the troubling trend might affect our fertility, too. 

How might “looksmaxxing” affect fertility?

The expert said that young people who turn to online sources for health and beauty advice assume the information they’re given is accurate. But that’s not true – in one study, 44% of medical advice for sinusitis on social media site TikTok wasn’t based on factual information.

“In the world of social media, image becomes important,” she stated. That might lead to “men taking anabolic steroids or non-prescribed testosterone” to make them look more muscular or “manly”. 

In reality, “That can have a harmful effect on their fertility and sperm,” Prof Nargund told us. 

Unless prescribed by a professional, added testosterone and steroids can make men’s sperm count “plummet”, Fertility Answers shared.

Meanwhile, “women wanting to stay slim and really becoming underweight can not only affect their fertility and menstruation but can also affect their bone health, [cause] osteoporosis”.

Being too underweight can stop the body from ovulating altogether.

How can we reduce that risk? 

The professor said that “[Men] need to check what’s on the package properly, if they’re anabolic steroids, or non-prescribed testosterone,” and that “health care professionals should be involved if people take [this kind of] medication”. 

Education matters, too, she shared. 

“This whole thing about fertility being women’s issue… we are working on it so much to try and make sure we change that. Because, you know, if you include those contributing factors for IVF now, nearly half of it is because of where there’s a contribution by sperm factor.” 

Then, there’s online culture to consider. 

“Looks and image being promoted on social media can have a health impact and a potentially harmful impact in some cases, which is why a public health education campaign and school education is important,” Prof Nargund stated.

“You can’t always block platforms, but we need to give practical, evidence-based education with examples of case studies.

“Delivering public health education is an obligation to achieve health activation, safety and prevention and reduce [the] long-term burden on our NHS”.