Lets start talking about Anabolic Steroids. Let us answer the main questions, ”What is Anabolic Steroids?”, ”How does it work?”, ”Whats the side effects of anabolic steroids?”, etc...

What is Anabolic Steroids?

In the beginning steroids were known that the testicles were required for both the development and maintenance of male sexual characteristics and this concept was futher developed by a scientist named Berthold in 1849. He removed the testes from these birds, and they lost several of the characteristics common to the male of their species. And it also lost the sexual function. When the birds were dissected it was found that no nervous connections were formed. This provided strong evidiance that ”The testes act upon the blood” and he futher concluded that this blood then had a systemic effect on the entire organism. This was the first step in anabolic steroid history.

Steroids can be divided into two types: anabolic and androgenic, but the distinction in some ways is artificial. Anabolic steroids mainly affect metabolism, immunity and muscle, while androgenic steroids have strong masculinisation effects on women and sometimes feminisation effects on men. But all anabolic steroids will increase masculine characteristics such as thick facial hair if the dose used is significant.

So “How does anabolic steroids work?”

Anabolic steroids are synthetic versions of testosterone, the body’s natural sex hormone. They assist athletes by facilitating efforts to gain strength and muscle mass for increased muscular endurance, power and speed. 

Male hormones such as testosterone and its metabolite di-hydrotestosterone are responsible for the developmental changes that occur within the male body through adolescence. Steroids possess both androgenic and anabolic properties. Some of the androgenic effects include changes in sexual characteristics such as shrinking of the testicles, hair growth on the body and face, hair loss on the scalp, and increased aggressiveness. Athletes are primarily concerned with the anabolic characteristics of steroids including accelerated development of the muscles, connective tissues, bones, and red blood cells. 

Whats the side effects of Steroids?

Typical problems you will find in people who abuse anabolic steroids include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice (yellow skin from liver failure), retention of fluid, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes, increases in LDL (dangerous form of cholesterol), kidney cancer, acne and trembling.

Men may find their testes shrink, sperm count falls with increase of infertility, their hair falls out, breasts start to develop, and prostate cancer becomes more likely. More than half of body-builder sterod abusers will typically experience enlarged breasts and shrunken male organs.

Women can start looking like men: growing beards, going bald, voice breaking - while their menstrual cycle changes or stops, and the clitoris enlarges.

Steroid abuse is particularly risky for teenagers, because it forces the body rapidly to adulthood, bones stop growing - permanently - and they reach puberty early.

Adolescents growth halted prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes.

And of course, steroid injecting carries all the other asssociated with other injecting drug use, such as infection with HIV, and hepatitis B or hepatitis C.