When using anabolic steroids we’re all searching for improvement in our body conditions – regardless if we’re using steroids for some health purposes or because of physique and performance enhancement purposes. The steroids indeed have a lot of different positive effects on our bodies and they can greatly help with various different needs, but is a very well known fact that the steroids are offering side effects too. If you already know what are the benefits of using steroids but you want to check the side effects then this article may be really helpful for you.
In fact, in this article you’re going to find out about the permanent / long lasting side effects of using anabolic steroids. The side effects may be short term and permanent / long lasting. Pretty much as some benefits too. Short term are usually considered those that only last for as long as the steroid is being administered and may last a few weeks more after the steroid is stopped and then the benefits or side effects disappear. Long term or permanent benefits or side effects are those that even after the steroid has been stopped from being administered – they continue to persist.
It can last up to some years or even a life time. Here, in this article, we would pay more attention to the side effects of steroids and mainly the long term side effects of steroids so you could balance out side effects and benefits. The short term are rarely of interest because they are reversible and they disappear in a matter of days or weeks.
The long term effects are usually of interest because they either permanently offer the effects on the user or they are very hard to get rid of. In addition to that, there are 2 types of long terms side effects of steroids too.
First type of long term adverse effects, like for example breast growth (gynecomastia), acne and oily skin, deepening of the voice, as well as abnormal amount of facial and/ or bodily hair growth in both women and men are not life threatening – they are all just physically not attractive. That is a really bad thing taking in consideration that steroids are usually taking for the vice versa – to be physically attractive.
Anyway, the constant steroid abuse is also having long term side effects that are considered to be very serious health conditions and they are considered to be life threatening. Among such conditions we can mention liver damager, liver cancer or liver failure, heart attack, heart failure or stroke and many other conditions.
There are some systemic epidemiological studies that were done on long term side effects of steroids, and especially those made on the anabolic and androgenic steroids (the ones used for physique and performance enhancement purposes) are pretty short and for this reason there’s not too much what can be said with certainty. Nonetheless, there’s still some available data – all of which has been collected only from the case reports.
The really good news about this is the fact that according to those few studies done and some case reports that were mentioned – when using anabolic steroids, the chances that it would result in high risk conditions does seem to be pretty low which indicates that even when abusing, you don’t have too much chances of high risk conditions, but when using the steroids in proper doses then the chances are extremely low or practically inexistent.
Yet, it doesn’t mean that they are fully safe, especially if abused. We also must take in consideration the fact that there may be some serious adverse conditions which were not reported or were not recognized, especially taking in consideration that a lot of those conditions can be occurring from the long time history of steroid abuse but then it could occur a lot of years later – making the user not attributing the use of steroids to his / her current condition.
In addition to that, there have been some studies done on animals and they are only supporting the possibilities that have been mentioned earlier. Like for example, there’s a study which proves that a male mice that has been exposed to the steroids products for one fifth of their lifespan are having quite high chances of early death.
Other than that, is important to know that the use of anabolic steroids is affecting our hormonal system too by disrupting the normal production of various different hormones in the human body. When the steroid is used in normal doses and for normal/ short periods of time, the hormonal system is barely disrupted and you are extremely unlikely to get through a permanent change. However, a high exposure to steroids and for long periods the results of the negative side effects are also long term and sometimes irreversible.
The changes in hormonal system may lead to various different negative effects like for example breast development known as gynecomastia as well as male pattern hair loss in men including many others too. These are the most commonly noticed long term side effects in men. However, the most noticeable side effects in women includes virilizing side effects like for example reduced breast size, deepening of the voice, worsening skin and hair conditions, enlarged clitoris and various other negative side effects.
But remember these are only some examples, other can include: reduced sperm count and testicular atrophy in men as well as loss of scalp hair in both men and women and there are others as well. Nonetheless, remember that these may only become long lasting or permanent and irreversible if the steroid is not used properly.
However, these lasting negative effects are considered be pretty reversible taking in consideration that a person is going to stop using the anabolic steroids and would get through a proper treatment at the first signs of these side effects apparition. Nonetheless, there’s the other side of the coin. If a person notices that he has these health conditions and still continues to abuse the steroids, without even adding a proper treatment to the regimen, then there’s quite a high chance that the side effects are going to be irreversible and permanent and if that certain point is being passed, the treatment won’t be helpful at all.
For example, if you start noticing gynecomastia then certain treatments may help. There are also various different preventative methods for getting gynecomastia. However, if this condition is going too far then there’s nothing which would help except for surgery.
There are various different long term side effects of steroids as well and by abusing such compounds you are also having a high risk of getting various skin conditions too like for example oily skin, cysts as well as acne. Skin conditions are rarely permanent and irreversible due to steroid abuse, but a long lasting abuse of steroids may very well offer the permanent skin conditions. Head hair would suffer a lot too and there’s barely any treatments for this. If you start noticing shredding hair then stopping steroids would help, otherwise you would most likely permanently lose your hair.
While abusing the steroids you’re at high risk of developing liver damage which may turn out into liver tumors and ultimately liver failure. Long term use of steroids and abusive doses would lead to bad liver issues. That’s why liver supplements are so important, including a proper dosing schedule and a steroid cycle length. Other liver issues may include a condition where blood filled cysts are being formed inside the liver which is often referred to as peliosis hepatis in medical settings and this may be long term side effect.
That’s not all because abusing steroids may have negative impact on our cardiovascular system as well. If a person is going to abuse steroids and would take them in too high doses and for too long time, the cardiovascular system would be damaged and this may lead to permanent and irreversible health conditions.
Obviously most prone to such side effects are elderly people and those who are already having any cardiovascular, heart, brain or blood condition. But this doesn’t mean that young people can abuse steroids. There are reports suggesting that healthy people under the age of 30 still had heart attacks and strokes as a result of abusive doses of steroids or too high exposure to steroids.
In most common cases, the steroids are affecting the cardiovascular system of a person by having a negative impact on the cholesterol – the anabolic steroids are changing the levels of the lipoproteins in the blood in a negative way. Not all steroids are known to have a negative impact on the cholesterol and among those which do have a negative impact – some are affecting cholesterol worse than others.
But to be more specific – there are oral steroids which are more prone and they are known to be reducing the levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and increasing the level of LDL (the bad cholesterol). As a result, you get a low HDL level and a high LDL level in the blood and this is highly increasing the risks of getting a cholesterol condition. You’re also at a high risk of getting atherosclerosis – a health condition that is known to seriously disrupt the blood flow in the body and that’s because you’re going to be depositing quite a high amount of fatty substances inside the arteries – this results in worsening blood flow overall in your body.
The worst thing is that the blood flow is being prevented to the brain as well and without enough blood to the brain, that’s extremely dangerous as it may result in a stroke. Stopping the blood flow is overall very dangerous as all our organs require blood. Blood flow to the heart may be prevented as well and this is going to cause heart attack. And so on and so forth. Steroids that are known to have negative impact on cholesterol are usually used alongside with cholesterol helping supplements and as all other steroids – they are all used in normal amounts and they shouldn’t ever be used for too long period of time.
Except for everything that has been mentioned above, there are other long term side effects of steroids too and for example, the steroid abuse has been linked to potentially exposure to some viral infections, viral infections that can be fatal such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C as well as HIV, and that’s especially when the user is administering the steroid through injection into their veins.
Then again, these are long terms side effects of steroids but they are rarely occurring as long as the user of the injectable steroid is properly administering it. The steroid itself won’t offer any viral infections (as long as there’s no infection in the steroid itself – that’s why is important to purchase only high quality and tested steroids for reducing the negative side effects chances), however the contaminated needles and the nonsterile manufacturing conditions or the injection techniques may result in the user getting those infections which are permanent and even life threatening.
On the final note is important to mention that these are not all the possible long terms side effects of using anabolic steroids but these are the most possible ones and the most important to mention. Although the chances of getting permanent and irreversible long term side effects of using anabolic steroids are not too high – you still should take them in consideration.
The chances of getting nasty and permanent side effects out of using anabolic steroids are greatly increased if the user is having too high doses of the steroid and is exposed for too much time to steroids. That’s one of the many other reasons why anabolic steroids should be taken only in proper doses, shouldn’t ever be abused or taken for too long times, should be taken only by healthy people without pre existing health conditions and all along with a healthy lifestyle such as regular exercise, healthy diet, adding supplements while using steroids and so on and so forth.
