At a gym near you: high-risk steroids
More and more of us take drugs just to look good. But the risks are huge
Five years ago, Caroline, 32, a TV researcher, joined a local gym with the aim of getting fit for her summer holiday. “I was fed up with being half a stone overweight,” she says. “I hated my fat back and flabby arms and thought that I’d really get in shape.” She hired a personal trainer, who devised an individual training regimen, and she “tried really hard to eat carefully. I went on a low-fat diet, but I still couldn’t shift flab on certain parts of my body. When a close friend at work — who was extremely fit — mentioned a supplement that would help me replace fat with muscle and lean tissue, I thought: ‘Give me some’.”
The supplement was clenbuterol, a form of anabolic steroid — a synthetic drug derived from testosterone and used medically to promote growth and repair body tissue. She bought it from her friend’s personal trainer, who said it was “the best fat-burner around, but wouldn’t turn me into a body builder. He also said they boosted libido.” He advised Caroline to take a 20mg tablet, two days on, two days off, for six weeks. “I thought I had nothing to lose.”
Within a month of beginning the course and continuing her regular gym programs — two yoga classes, a weights workout and a stint on the treadmill — Caroline (whose name has been changed) says: “People started commenting on how good I was looking and how much weight I had lost. I came down three cups in my bra size and felt good.” But there were less welcome side-effects: “I became agitated and stressed about work. I started getting palpitations and sweating. I wasn’t sure it was the tablets, but once I stopped them I felt better. It was scary.”
Caroline is one of a growing band of ordinary women who have taken anabolic steroids to achieve the slender, toned body of a celebrity. The attraction is that they increase muscle mass, although not necessarily bulk, reduce body fat and mean quicker recovery times from workouts. Users report that they give a mental boost, mainly through sexual confidence and an improved body image. Most start with steroids in tablet form, but some progress to injectable drugs, which allow for greater potency and are mistakenly thought to be less risky to the liver. They cost £25 to £50 for a cycle (six to twelve weeks, followed by a short break), making them hardly more expensive than an average course of vitamins and minerals.
The July edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reported on a survey of gyms, conducted last year by the University of Glamorgan, which revealed that the abuse of “certain prescription medicines among health club attendees has dramatically increased in the UK”. In the five years since conducting a similar study, the researchers have seen a 44 per cent increase in the use of some steroid and body-building drugs; one needle-exchange clinic in South Wales reported a rise of 600 needles from steroid users in one month. Of the muscle-building drugs being taken, clenbuterol, ephedrine (a stimulant that causes weight loss) and growth hormone steroids were the most abused.
Once, the stereotypical steroid user was a beefcake with bulging biceps and protruding eyes. But what surprised Professor Bruce Davies and his colleagues was that around 7 per cent of gym members questioned were women, who admitted taking steroids “for cosmetic purposes”. According to Dr Michael Graham, another member of the Glamorgan team, these were women “attending everyday gyms, some of them in exclusive hotels, who wanted to lose body fat and tone up” . His colleague, Dr Julien Baker, says: “We were particularly concerned that some of the women using steroids were not even training regularly at the gym — they were taking the drugs purely to lose weight and look good.”
In recent years, UK Sport has reported that steroid use among elite athletes has declined significantly, being replaced by more effective and less easily detected performance-enhancers. Yet steroid sales have never been higher and are the drugs of choice for those wanting to improve their appearance. “They are banned for use in sport,” Dr Graham says. “But buying, taking or possessing steroids is not illegal in the UK.”
Getting hold of these muscle-bulking agents is not difficult either. Ralph Heron — the clinical co-ordinator of the Drugs In Sport Clinic and Users Support (Discus), a drop-in clinic in Chester-le Street established by the Durham and Darlington NHS Trust — says that they are widely available on the internet and that “you could easily buy them at regular gyms”, often from trainers or fellow members.
Pat Lenehan, of the Drugs in Sport Information Service, says: “We have heard about steroids being sold at school gates. Around half of all GPs in some areas of the UK have seen steroid takers in their surgeries. There’s no typical pattern for use: 14 to 60-year-olds will take them. It’s a huge problem.”
Statistics from UK needle-exchange centres indicate increasing numbers of steroid users among young professionals. Disturbingly, there are also signs that they are getting younger. Dr Robert Dawson, a GP and director of Discus, found steroids to be the third most common drug offered to 14 and 15-year-olds after cannabis and amphetamines.
Professor Charles Yesalis, the head of exercise and sport science at Pennsylvania State University, who has been studying the trend of steroid use in the US, says that the number of American teenage girls on steroids has doubled in the past decade to almost 200,000. “I’d say that 500,000 to 600,000 kids in the US have used these drugs,” he says. “Steroid use is at an all-time high. We’ve shown use down to 13 and 14-year-olds. It’s scary for anyone to use these drugs, but in particular for women and children.”
Yet their appeal to women is obvious. As Professor Yesalis says: “A lean, toned-looking body is the most popular image portrayed among actresses and models; it seems likely that this fashion may be prompting girls and women to imitate these so-called ideals by using illegal drugs to build muscle.” He adds that steroids have the added attraction of making a young person feel more popular and “more sexually attractive”.
Yet this new breed of user could suffer long-term damage: teenagers may reach only 95 per cent of the adult height they would otherwise attain; females taking male sex hormones can experience acne, smaller breasts on account of excessive fat loss, a deeper voice, irregular periods, excess facial and body hair, depression, paranoia and the fits of anger dubbed “roid rage”. The drugs also generate increased risk of heart attack, stroke, infertility and some forms of cancer.
Ralph Heron, of Discus, says that “physically, they are not addictive, but there is an element of psychological dependency as people think they can’t look good or work out without them”. Many people attending Discus and similar clinics complain of depression and mood swings when they come off steroids, or even between cycles.
“We don’t know the full effects they could have on women’s reproductive systems,” says Professor Yesalis. “When a young woman takes these drugs the possibility of permanent damage is significant as her body is still maturing.”
Later this year, the University of Glamorgan team begins a study into the precise effects that steroid taking has on young women. “We want to know exactly what the repercussions are,” Dr Baker says. “The potential for a generation of women to be physically and psychologically scarred is huge.”
DRUGS BEING ABUSED
Clenbuterol
A form of anabolic steroid that is banned in sport. The chemical is attractive because it appears to have a steroid-type anabolic effect on human muscles (ie, makes them stronger) and it may also speed up fat metabolism.
Ephedrine
A stimulant that boosts metabolism. Though a prescription-only drug in the UK, it’s available in many over-the-counter medications in America. In the University of Glamorgan study, ephedrine use was found to have increased by 44 per cent in the past five years among gymgoers. Its use is banned in sport.
Growth hormones
Used to enhance muscle mass and induce lipolysis — the breakdown of fat in cells. Use has risen by 24 per cent in five years. They are banned in sport.
Anabolic steroids
They build muscle, reduce fat and help the body to recover faster from intense exercise. Banned in sport.
Creatine
Legal in sport. Obtained through food, but it takes 454g (1lb) of raw beef to make 1.8g of creatine — and experts say that 3g a day is required to be effective — so it is often taken as a supplement. It increases muscular strength and enhances performance in sprint or power-based activities. The long-term effects are unknown.
