Steroids vs Death: An unnatural risk

Women love a man with a good build. And men want to be loved by women. It’s not a surprise, it’s human nature. It’s the whole core of the birds and the bees.

To that end men have long gone to great ends to impress women in general, and even moreso for specific women. I have, as did my father, as I’m sure every man reading this has. It’s what we do.

Whether that means buying a trendy, red, sports car (or a big yellow Humveee depending on your tastes) or working out 4 times a week men across the world want to look attractive to women. For a growing number of men, this quest to be a mirror-image of Adonis has lead to acne, male breasts, and death.

I’m referring to steroids and its use among teenage boys and young men. Not that the side-effects are any better or less severe for older men. But a trend has been growing for some time and is starting to reach proportions of serious concern. Yet it doesn’t make sense why.

To be honest, I did not know much about steroids back in 1998. That’s when I got a client (I was a stockbroker at the time) who was taking steroids. I’ll call him B (for Buff).

B was taking steroids for about 6 months by the time he became my client, to my best knowledge. Due to the nature of his account I spoke with him several times a day. Because he was a local New Yorker I saw him about once a week to review. For the next 3 years I noticed the change in his behavior.

B was a young man, 26, successful and a bit stocky though he was about 5’6”-ish. Energetic all the time, he was very excitable. He could be heard yelling at me, both in joy of a good trade and anger at a bad one, through the phone. The thing was that the trading we were doing was not overly impressive. He was making money, but not so much as to be that excited.

As time passed these mood swings got worse, til one time B wanted to get into a fight with me because (at our weekly meeting to review the account) a bar tender gave him a lite beer instead of a regular one. When I tried to calm him down he nearly assaulted me. That’s when I found out about the steroids.

That’s how I learned a bit more about steroids than the common thought that it’s something baseball players and wrestlers use. Actually lots of regular people use it too. And they suffer for it along with all the people they know. It nearly cost B his marriage and the brokerage account I managed for him. But when he nearly assaulted his mother over spoiling coffee, that was his turning point.

But rage is not the full measure of this problem. Long-term abuse leads to far worse problems than a hair-trigger temper. There is the fact men can grow boobs, lose their balls and the ability to have children. They go bald, have heart attacks, get liver cancer, acne, and more. That does not even touch on the chance to get HIV or AIDS and/or delusions.

All by the age of 25 in some cases, sometimes even younger.

Honestly it isn’t even necessary. Any man can get bigger, looking like a small truck if they want. You just need to eat healthy and work out. That’s it. Real simple and no different than what men have done for centuries across the world.

But in a world where every guy is trying to outdo the movie stars and CGI effects (al la 300) natural improvement isn’t enough. Teens are apparently feeling peer pressure and taking the easy way out. It’s just stupid.

When I got back from Marine boot camp, I was diesel. No question on that. And there was no need for more. And I could have done it without joining the military (which was not the reason why I joined, just a pleasant bonus).

This is not just an American problem though.

"I started using them to build up my muscles and look better. In the group of lads I hang around with, the bigger you are the more respected you are and at my local gym everyone was doing it, no one ever told me about any side effects."

That’s one young man from Britian. In Austrailia

“In a nine-month Customs operation between October 2006 and July 2007, Customs officers detected 1405 separate importations — a 50% jump in seizures at the Australian border.”

This is a growing issue, and its not getting the attention that it deserves. When Chris Benoit killed his family and himself in a steroid rage, there was huge coverage. Since that became old news, what have you heard? What have your kids heard? That Barry Bonds got into the history books because of steroids, Not exactly a reason not to take the drugs.

Suffice to say that this is something parents, friends, wives, girlfriends, and family need to pay attention to. We as men need to know that this is not a quick fix to attracting women. There is a cost for the added mass, and it’s not cheap.

Male fitness is more than a means to get bigger, it a way to live better. There is no shortcut to that. And it’s not too much to achieve with a good diet, exercise, and a clear mind. Think about it.

*this can also be found at Male Fitness Blog, where I am a contributing author.*