Steroids have legitimate medical uses, but they are well-known as an enhancement technique for bodybuilders, athletes, and everyday people who believe they will look better by using them. To understand steroid use, it is necessary to look at their history and chemical makeup, how they are used today, and the many side effects that could come with non-medical use.
But why is it so bad to use these drugs? To begin with, people who misuse steroids often use dosages that are 10 to 100 times higher than the doses which are usually prescribed for medical conditions. As side-effects are usually dosage-dependent that makes things even worse.
Long-term effects include kidney problem up to kidney failure, liver damage and tumors, enlarged heart, high blood pressure and changes in blood cholesterol all of which increase the risk of stroke and heart attack – even in young people. And if that wasn’t bad enough, also the risk of blood clots increases. In men, sperm counts also decrease, they go bald, develop breasts, have an increased risk of prostate cancer, and, of course, then there are the balls.
So let’s look at your balls shall we?
And there we get to the real reason you want to read about steroids, which is addressed at Today I Found Out. The effects of steroids on women are also addressed.
For a more humorous and less fact-filled look at the subject, see the previous article Bodybuilders Have Tiny Testes.