What Are the Side Effects of Steroids?
Table of Contents
Performance-enhancing drugs are quite popular today. Fitness enthusiasts, athletes, weight lifters, and bodybuilders use them spuriously to enhance their performance and ability. While they do help in acquiring good physiques, there are some downsides as well.What are the side effects of steroids? Read on to find out.
What are steroids?
Doctors use corticosteroids to treat autoimmune diseases. But the steroids athletes and others use are not part of the medicinal variant. They are anabolic steroids and are manufactured or synthetic testosterone that can help you gain muscle mass. Doctors sometimes prescribe anabolic steroids too, to reverse the wastage of muscles caused by illnesses like AIDS. But unsupervised usage of anabolic steroids or testosterone is not a good idea.Men and women produce testosterone naturally in their bodies. The amount generated is precise and sufficient to carry out its destined purposes without disrupting the delicate hormone balance. But if you start pumping your body full of testosterone through steroids, there will be consequences.
What are the side effects of steroids?
1. Effects on the brain
Even though unrestrained use of anabolic steroids is considered as drug abuse, they have a different and more dangerous impact on the brain. The effects are long-term, and include-
- Paranoia.
- Extreme jealousy.
- Aggressive behaviour.
- Delusions or misguided beliefs.
- Mania.
- Impairment of judgement.
This not only deteriorates one’s quality of life, but also strains their relationship with people around them. And eventually, they end up isolated and segregated.
2. Effects on the body
Anabolic steroids may grant users a dream body, strength and appearance. But there are flip sides of it that can turn ugly pretty soon-
- Bloating of hands and feet.
- Extensive damage to the liver, which might also lead to malignant tumours.
- The kidneys flush out all the stuff your body does not need. Since your system is swimming in steroids, your kidneys fail in trying to get them out. This damages these organs.
- Your heart may become enlarged.
- Your blood pressure will shoot up.
- Bad cholesterol will over-power good cholesterol and cause heart problems.
- The risk of stroke will increase.
- Blood clots may develop.
- You may also experience violent mood swings.
What are the side effects of steroids, specific to a woman’s body?
Too much of steroids in a woman’s body will cause masculine features–
- She may grow facial hairs.
- Her breasts may shrink.
- Her menstrual cycle will be interrupted.
- She may develop enlarged clitoris.
- Her voice may deepen.
- She may become infertile.
What are the side effects of steroids, specific to a man’s body?
Excess testosterone can trigger-
- Low sperm count.
- Prostate cancer.
- Shrunken testicles.
- Growth of breasts.
- Loss of hair.
- Infertility.
If teenagers (both girls and boys) take steroids, they-
- Experience stunted development, since testosterone limits bone growth.
- Stop growing tall.
- Will have to grapple with acne and oily skin.
Conclusion
Anabolic drugs without a prescription are illegal for a reason. They can have terrible consequences on your body. [av_promobox button='yes' label='Consult a doctor on MediBuddy' link='https://www.medibuddy.in/?utm_source=blog_cta&utm_medium=blog' link_target='' color='blue' custom_bg='#f00' custom_font='#ffffff' size='large' icon_select='no' icon='ue800' font='entypo-fontello'] Safe usage is something that needs to be discussed if you are among those people who need to take steroids at various points of life. A good doctor can help. Talk to a doctor on MediBuddy today itself![/av_promobox] Sources:
