Three years ago, Carl never would

have expected his relationship with steroids to go this far. His

motivation: sports.

“I compete in the sport of

powerlifting, where drug use is not only common, but openly

accepted as part of the sport,” Carl said. “I figured if everyone

else was doing it, why shouldn’t I?”

After being exposed to steroids at

the age of 19, Carl began his fury of research to learn more about

the powers of steroids.

“I decided to wait until I was 21 to

try them,” Carl said. 

He said that waiting didn’t make the

experience any easier. 

“I took the syringe out of the box

and pulled two millimeters of testosterone enanthate from the vial.

I waited trying to work up the courage, and finally I managed to

push the needle in slowly. I pushed the plunger until it was gone,

and I pulled the needle out. A few droplets of blood came out. I

laid on the cold tile for a while before I would stop

shaking.”

Carl never realized how much his

life would change after that moment. Not only would his body begin

to change, but his sense of well-being, his lifestyle and his

future would be changed forever.

“Since I’ve been using them, my

vascularity increased greatly, I lost fat and gained more muscle,”

Carl said. “The steroids are what increases strength and muscle

size, and the effects on body composition are great.”

Carl struggled with depression prior

to his use, but the steroids’ effect on his confidence and

self-esteem allowed him to surpass this condition.

Carl’s strength performance in the

powerlifting meets also excelled since he began using

them.

“It has taken me three years of use

to win my competition,” he said. “But I think it will be another

two years before I can win open nationals. I’m willing to do

whatever it takes.”

Harrison Pope, a steroid specialist,

psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Harvard University,

said steroids are called anabolic-androgenic because they have two

sets of effects.

“The anabolic are the muscle gaining

effects that cause you to gain muscle mass,” Pope said. “And the

androgenic effects are the so-called masculinizing effects which

include both physical effects such as hair growth or acne and the

psychological effects.”

Malhar Gore, physician at Thielen

Student Health Center, said steroids’ effect on body composition

stimulate muscle tissue to grow and bulk up in response to training

by mimicking the effect of naturally produced testosterone on the

body.

“Steroids also promote the masculine

traits that males develop during puberty, such as deepening of the

voice and growth of body hair,” Gore said.

Carl’s decision to use steroids has

set a standard for what his future entails.

“As soon as I started, it became a

major lifestyle decision, one you can’t back away from easily,”

Carl said. “A lot of my life from here on out is going to have to

do with steroids, probably forever.”

Sports aren’t the only reason some

individuals begin using steroids. Pope says many use because they

do exactly what you want them to.

“The main reason people are prompted

to use steroids is because they work,” Pope said. “They are

extremely effective for gaining muscle mass and the short term

hazards are pretty minor.”

Debra Atkinson, director of the Ames

Racquet and Fitness Personal Training, said people looking for

instant, dramatic changes in their bodies are more likely to use

steroids.

“Individuals use steroids because

they have an intense desire to change and a need for

self-confidence and instant gratification,” Atkinson

said.

Pope also thinks that the lack of

short term side effects plays a role in the motivation for steroid

use.

“Most kids who take them don’t

notice any adverse effects in the short term,” Pope said. “So as a

result, they are rarely deterred by fears that they are going to

get the dangerous side effects, even though in reality, the long

term side effects may be fairly serious.”

Jake Prater, vice president of the

Iowa State University Weight Club, said the main reason people want

to try steroids is for performance.

“Whether it’s strength, speed or

looking better, people are interested in steroids because they

enhance natural ability.”

Carl thinks that a lot of steroid

users have the wrong intentions for using steroids.

“Most of the people that use

steroids are gym rats that are insecure about their looks and think

drugs are the solution to their problems,” Carl said. “Athletes,

both professional and amateur, are a minority.”

Carl says that these inexperienced

steroid users are often the ones who cause problems.

“When most people start, they really

don’t have any idea what they’re doing, and they don’t have any

guidance,” Carl said. “Those are the idiots that run into trouble

and make a bad name for everything.”

Although Carl is experienced with

his use, he has run into problems along the way.

“Some drugs increase my hematocrit,

[or amount of red blood cells,] and cause my anxiety to flare up.

I’ve become an insomniac so when I take some drugs, I have to take

sleeping pills,” Carl said. “Otherwise, I can stay up for three to

four days.”

“Being on high doses of anything

lowers my high-density lipoproteins a little bit, but I had an

experience with one drug that took my HDL from the mid-50s to 4.

That’s really, really bad,” Carl said.

Pope argues that one of the major

dangers of steroids is the fact that science does not know enough

about them.

“In science, we have a phrase that

absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In other words, we

don’t have a whole lot of evidence about the long term cardiac

effects,” Pope said. “The shortage of data does not mean that these

drugs are safe. It simply means we don’t have enough data

yet.”

Carl stated that he researches what

he can about the consequences of the drugs, but there is not enough

information to be 100 percent sure.

“I know steroids have some negative

effects on the cardiovascular system,” Carl said. “I don’t know how

those effects happen, but nobody really does because since it’s

illegal, they can’t really do studies on it to find out.

“

“These drugs may be more dangerous

than we know,” Pope said. “But it may be another decade before we

fully understand the magnitude of those dangers.”

Another problem with the various

types of steroids is that each and every drug has the potential to

affect the user differently.

“With 90 percent of the drugs I’ve

taken, I experienced no negative side effects what-so-ever,” said

Carl. “But these drugs have caused other people’s blood pressure to

go through the roof. Their HDL drops, they have problems with

estrogen control, or it can just make them feel terrible. The

effects of the drugs are completely individual and are different

for everyone.”

One way steroid users deal with the

negative side effects is through the use of ancillaries, which are

supporting drugs such as anti-estrogens or acne drugs that help

reduce the side effects of steroids.

“Most ancillaries are hard to find,

but you can legally buy them as research chemicals,” Carl

said.

Carl, among other steroid users,

gains access to steroids, growth hormones and ancillaries through

the internet.

“That’s where almost everyone gets

them. You can get things on the internet for much cheaper than you

can find on the street,” he said.

The Internet has made steroid

commerce extremely easy and Pope says that the internet is now the

primary source of steroids.

“Unlike other drugs of abuse which

are often illegal in any country of the world, steroids are

perfectly legal in many countries and can be purchased in a local

pharmacy without a prescription,” Pope said.

Carl says there are plenty of scam

sites online and that you have to really be looking hard to find

the real thing.

“You have to watch out because most

of the sites that have advertisements are scams. You access the

real ones through an email address, but they’re pretty hard to

find.”

Suppliers have various ways of

avoiding the legal consequence, but still are able to provide the

drugs globally.

“It is very hard to prevent, even

with a substantial amount of interjection,” Pope said. “There is

just such a vast flow that it’s hard to intercept any substantial

percentage of it.”

Since the process of obtaining

steroids is rather risky, users accept a substantial amount of risk

ordering their drugs online.

“You can never really know … what

you’re getting when you order over the Internet,” Carl said. “And

that’s part of the problem. You have to find a source you can

trust.”