It’s been called the Peter Pan drug, rumoured to have hooked a generation of ageing stars such as Demi Moore, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Suzanne Somers, Sylvester Stallone and Nick Nolte. But such is the controversy around synthetic human growth hormone (HGH) that only a handful have publicly acknowledged taking it.
Caught bringing synthetic HGH into Australia in 2007, Stallone told NBC’s Today show that he was taking it under the supervision of his doctor to help with endurance and recovery after exercise. Nolte has called it ‘a systems repair’, describing on WWD how he injected it into his stomach. And Somers, the perky blonde in the sitcom Three’s Company, has published a best-seller about it – Ageless: The Naked Truth about Bioidentical Hormones – in which she enthuses about its ability to combat the ‘Seven Dwarfs of Menopause: Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful and All-Dried Up’.
‘A change is. ‘As the boomers age and lose their edge, they’re looking around at the ones who are looking like they have a secret. More and more, my phone rings with Hollywood folks who want to know whom to go to.’
