What is Anabolic Steroid?
Many of the major functions of the human body are stimulated by different hormones. One of the most active hormone in the body is testosterone which is the key male sex hormone. Way back in the 1930s, scientists decided to design drugs that actually provide similar anabolic and androgenic effects as testosterone.
Androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS) are chemically synthesized drugs that are derived from testosterone and designed to imitate the anabolic and androgenic properties of endogenous testosterone hormone.
For more than 80 years, Anabolic steroids have played a vital role in medical science and in the world of sports. In the medical field, AAS are used in the treatment of a number of ailments.
For example, AAS is used in testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to treat male patients with hypogonadism or low testosterone levels and to boost libido.
AAS is also used to stimulate appetite and weight gain in patients suffering from catabolic disorders and wasting syndromes including cancer and HIV/AIDS.
Despite the dangers of anabolic steroids, athletes are known to use them to enhance both their physique and overall athletic performance. Athletes use AAS to build up their skeletal muscle mass, increase bone density, shed visceral fat and reduce body weight.
Anabolic steroids are known to increase protein production in the body. AAS will also stimulate protein synthesis in skeletal muscle tissue which ultimately leads to a growth in muscle tissues.
Steroid use will also boost nitrogen retention, Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and red blood cell production. These anabolic activities lead to performance-enhancing benefits, such as; increased strength, agility, energy, power, aggression, and stamina.
There are many anabolic steroids available in different forms. However, anabolic steroid pills and steroid injections are the most common forms of AAS. Athletes use orally administered steroids like Stanozolol (Winstrol), and Oxandrolone (Anavar) to shed body fat and lose weight.
Injectable steroids may be administered either intramuscularly or subcutaneously. Some of the most frequently used injectable steroids for muscle gains include Nandrolone (Deca-Durabolin) and Testosterone enanthate.
The use of anabolic steroids in many countries around the world is deemed to be illegal unless under prescription. Nevertheless, the high demand for anabolic-androgenic steroids in sports has led to the availability of many blackmarket performance-enhancing drugs.
Many strength athletes like bodybuilders, weightlifters, strongmen, and powerlifters often get their supply of non-prescription anabolic steroids from online suppliers from different parts of the world including Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Steroid Symptoms and Warning signs
There are many anabolic steroid side effects to speak of. Anabolic steroid use can result in side effects that are either mild in nature or very severe.
The truth is, people respond differently to steroids.
Prescription steroids may cause mild side effects in users as the physician would often prescribe dosages that would be ideal for treatment. However, with non-prescription steroids, there is often a tendency to misuse or abuse steroids.
Steroid users tend to rely on the “expert” advice of bodybuilding trainers who recommend steroid cycles and dosages. These bodybuilding trainers may not be trained physicians and only offer recommendations based on their own experiences from the use of the anabolic steroid being recommended.
Using non-prescription anabolic steroids can be dangerous to your health. For starters, the supply of steroids from blackmarket dealers is a problem, as many of these drugs are either fake or adulterated.
Secondly, even when you have genuine steroids available to you, you could misuse or abuse the drug. Thirdly, without a thorough, general health check before using anabolic steroids, you could inadvertently expose yourself to many health risks.
Some of the known symptoms, warning signs, and dangers of anabolic steroids to your health include the following;
Dermatological Issues: These include; excessive oily skin, seborrhea, acne conglobata and/or vulgaris, edema, scalp baldness, stretch marks, and excessive hair growth.
Endocrine and Reproductive Concerns: These consist of changes in sex drive/libido, infertility (reversible), and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.
Neurological Problems: These include psychiatric problems, such as; anxiety, depression, delusions, mania, suicidality, irritability, mood swings, and violent aggression.
Cardiovascular Health Conditions: Such as; Hypertension, thrombosis (such as stroke and embolism), dyslipidemia (i.e. raised LDL and lowered HDL cholesterol levels), left ventricular hypertrophy, and sudden death.
Musculoskeletal Issues: These are muscle hypertrophy, rhabdomyolysis, muscle strains, and ruptured tendons.
Renal Health Concerns: These include; renal hypertrophy, renal cell carcinoma, nephropathy, and acute renal failure.
Hepatic Problems: Such as; hepatotoxicity, hepatic steatosis, jaundice, cholestasis, and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Anabolic steroids are normally taken as standalone drugs or in stacks which are administered in cycles. A cycle is that period of time that it would take for the drug to be effective in either treating an ailment (in medical treatment) or in providing bodybuilding/performance-enhancing gains.
When steroids are used beyond prescribed cycles, they can be dangerous to your health. Typically, each steroid cycle is followed up by post-cycle therapy or PCT. PCT is a plan set aside to counter the effects of sustained steroid use. Steroids influence (positively or negatively) your hormone levels.
Some steroids like exogenous testosterone will aromatize and convert to estrogen (i.e. female sex hormone). When estrogen is exceedingly high in the body (particularly in male steroid users) it can bring about many feminization side effects.
Steroid use can also completely halt your endogenous testosterone production. So having a PCT plan involving the use of anti-estrogen medications, such as; Nolvadex, Clomid, Proviron, and Arimidex will help to reduce high estrogen levels while promoting normalcy to your endogenous testosterone production.
Effects of Steroid Use in Men vs Women
The use of anabolic steroids for bodybuilding and performance enhancement can lead to both male and female users experiencing similar bodybuilding gains. Steroids can increase skeletal muscle mass, reduce body weight, and/or improve overall performance in both genders (although in varying degrees).
There are also some similarities in the anabolic steroid side effects in men and women. For example, acne, male pattern scalp baldness, and excessive hair growth (facial and body). However, anabolic steroids can also cause male and female specific side effects as well.
When the level of estrogen in male steroid users is very high, they can experience feminization side effects. These side effects include; testicular atrophy, fluid retention, erectile dysfunction, and gynecomastia (breath hypertrophy ).
Female steroid users tend to experience virilization or masculinization side effects when the level of testosterone in their body is high. Some of these virilization side effects include; an enlargement of the clitoris, irregular menstrual cycles, increased facial and body hair, a hoarseness in their voice, and breast atrophy.
Treatment
While a drug test can reveal if a person is using anabolic-androgenic steroids or not, most users these days are not professional athletes who are exposed to random drug tests. Many steroid users are regular folks who want to look like their Hollywood idols.
So most times the diagnosis of steroid abuse often goes unnoticed till the user is admitted to hospital for treatment due to the development of one severe side effect or another. This is one of the many dangers of anabolic steroids abuse.
Upon diagnosis, a physician would often recommend a drug dependency treatment option. Anabolic steroids may not be psychoactive drugs like alcohol, maruajana, cocaine, and heroin, but people may be addicted to the positive anabolic effects that they provide. This can lead users to an overreliance on AAS without giving proper thought to the dangers of anabolic steroids abuse.
The first step to treatment is for the steroid abuser to accept that they are actually dependent on steroids and that they really do need help. Counseling forms the cornerstone of AAS abuse treatment. Patients also need assistance from support groups including their immediate family, and close friends.
Patients of steroid abuse are also susceptible to mental health challenges, such as; depression, anxiety, and suicidality. Such patients are closely monitored to ensure that they do not cause harm to themselves or to other people.
While recovering from steroid abuse, patients often experience withdrawal symptoms. These withdrawal symptoms may vary from one patient to another and medications are usually prescribed to help patients deal with health issues like headaches, insomnia, nausea, spasms, and muscle aches.
Conclusion
Anabolic steroids are used in the medical field for treating a variety of ailments. In medical use, these drugs are obtained from drugstores and pharmacies with the use of valid prescriptions.
However, there are many blackmarket dealers that may offer genuine or fake/adulterated steroids. Non-prescription steroid users put themselves are risk of many health problems when they use unprescribed steroids.
The most common problem with taking non-prescription steroids is the misuse or abuse of the drug(s). The dangers of anabolic steroids are felt by both male and female users.
Male steroid users may experience feminization side effects while female users may be exposed to masculinization side effects from using anabolic steroids.
The abuse of steroids is real and although steroids are not psychoactive substances as such, users can still be addicted to the benefits they derive from taking anabolic steroid pills or injections.
Counseling plays a key role in the treatment of anabolic steroid abuse patients. Another telling part of treatment is the help of family, friends, and community support groups. Ultimately, anabolic steroids can be dangerous and should only be used under guided prescription.
