A Long Road to Muscle Mass
Building muscle mass requires significant patience while taking the right steps over the long term. Muscle mass is not gained as quickly as fat is gained, nor as quickly as fat is lost. That is why many succumb to the allure of quick results through steroids. I would advise you to take steroids as much as I would advise you to commit armed robberies to get money – never. The point of money, for example, is not to come into possession of it, but to possess the ability to earn it, giving something appropriate in return for that money. By using steroids, most of the benefits of exercise and nutrition are bypassed; in other words, we deprive ourselves of the true benefits for the cells, the organism, and the mind.
This deprivation is the mildest problem. Steroid use is often followed by effects such as mental health issues, depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts, infertility, heart problems, etc. If you think I want to sound alarming, believe me, I sound far calmer than is appropriate for a situation that has spiraled out of control with steroid use, especially among younger and younger users.
If you are interested in the terminology
More precisely, they are called anabolic steroids, and even more accurately, anabolic-androgenic steroids. Anabolic refers to the fact that they cause tissue growth, and androgenic to the fact that they cause the development of male characteristics. The word steroid originates from the word cholesterol, a substance first discovered in gallstones. This is how the name cholesterol came to be – chole means bile, and sterol means solid. Steroids are related to cholesterol because it is their basic building block. Hence, many hormones are steroid hormones, such as testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, progesterone – even Vitamin D is considered a steroid hormone more than a vitamin. Not all steroid hormones are anabolic, and not all are androgenic.
In colloquial terms, when we say “steroids,” we mean anabolic synthetic steroids.
Physical and Emotional Consequences
The National Drug Intelligence Center, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, states:
“Steroid abuse is associated with a range of physical and emotional problems. Physical consequences include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, high blood pressure and increases in cholesterol levels, kidney tumors, fluid retention, and severe acne. Men may experience shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, breast development, and increased risk of prostate cancer. Women may experience growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, changes or cessation in menstrual cycle, and deepening of the voice. Individuals who are still growing (adolescents) risk prematurely halting their growth because of early skeletal maturation and acceleration of puberty.
Emotional problems associated with steroid use include dramatic mood swings (including manic symptoms that can lead to violence called roid rage), depression, paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment.”
The Price of “Artificial Vigor”
These words are not chosen lightly; these are the real problems and consequences of steroid use. Usually, the “big guy” at the gym or the experienced lifter won’t tell you about the severe depressions he went through because of steroid use. He will likely tell you about the great feeling, the strength, the vigor. But that is artificial vigor, just as if you were to take a small dose of cocaine – you would feel strength and vigor. But it’s artificial. And everything given artificially is taken away naturally. In translation, as a consequence, you lose your capacity to naturally produce what you were getting artificially. That is the price; that is the interest on the loan.
Don’t be surprised that these topics aren’t discussed. One reason is that in a society where there is heavy use of harmful substances, very little will be said about them. Ask yourself how much you hear about the negative effects of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, antidepressants… yet these are some of the most used products. Instead of important things, we regularly hear about trivial ones. For example, a film about Donald Trump’s wife. We sit with our third coffee and a fatty liver, reading about the film…
The Invisible Struggle: Mental Health and Depression
Since we want to exercise and be strong, let’s be strong in facing reality:
“Anabolic steroid use and abuse can lead to profound and complex mental complications which should be discussed in patient counseling.” – study: “ANABOLIC-ANDROGENIC STEROIDS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER AND SUICIDE ATTEMPT: ANALYSIS OF A MULTI-NATIONAL DATABASE”
Research shows that anabolic steroid users have a significantly higher risk of suicide compared to non-users, mainly due to the association with major depressive disorders, mood instability, and generally higher mortality.
Fast Results Do Not Mean Healthy Growth
Methods for accelerated growth of vegetables and meat mean that such food does not possess all nutrients in natural quantities and is far from nutritious compared to proper growth. It is similar with muscles and the organism – you have gained muscle mass, but the cells have not experienced the desirable adaptations they should have gone through, and didn’t because you gave them a fast “result” via unnatural means.
If it were healthy, I would be the first and greatest advocate fighting for “smart” or “proper” steroid use.
Living on Credit
Taking steroids is like living on credit (someone else’s money/someone else’s testosterone), and while it may look attractive, the money isn’t free; the debt eventually comes due with interest and everything you were receiving dries up.
Steroids like testosterone should only be taken if medically prescribed for certain conditions, e.g., a permanent deficiency in testosterone secretion – even then, it carries risks. Everything else is considered abuse.
All steroids are essentially synthetic testosterone. So when someone takes “steroids,” they are taking testosterone in some molecular form.
Almost all professional (competitive) bodybuilders are on lifelong testosterone because they have to be, even after they stop competing. This requires constant artificial adjustment of hormones in the body because various functions are constantly worsening – blood thickens, the heart muscle grows, mood suffers…
A large portion of amateur competitors are on lifelong testosterone (though certainly not all). Many of them, though they call themselves amateurs, use even higher doses than professionals in an attempt to earn a “Pro Card.”
Some amateurs have “off” periods. For professional competitors, there are no breaks; they take testosterone constantly because their natural production always shuts down, and most often this is permanent, so they stay on “the sauce” indefinitely.
Among amateurs, use also leads to permanent use because every period of abstinence from synthetic testosterone means severe depression, medication, zero libido, sterility, etc., and in the end, after so much use, it “becomes logical” not to stop at all.
Steroids and Progressive Stagnation
Another important thing about steroids is that with them, it becomes progressively harder to achieve muscle growth as the muscle fibers grow. This means that with steroids, there is a diminishing return on invested effort, and life without steroids becomes harder while the benefits of exercise seem further away. With steroids, stagnation in gains is reached much faster compared to natural muscle growth. This difficulty and stagnation in muscle growth increase the tendency toward more steroids, requiring more and more interventions and progressively harder training, which also leads to structural damage and excessive strain on the heart, liver, and other organs.
Almost no one in public, and certainly not the promoters of steroid use, mentions even 1% of the harm of such use. Nor do they mention the tendency toward permanent testosterone replacement therapy due to the permanent loss of one’s own testosterone production.
A Healthy and Productive Life?
Fast muscle mass? No, I choose a healthy and productive life, without fearing what I need to intervene in next and whether it will be my last.
This is not a condemnation of someone who uses or has used steroids. With this article, I have no intention of making anyone feel guilty. I only want to raise awareness. Everyone has their own decisions, standards, and goals.
Some people were lured by rhetoric like:
“Come on, you won’t do it your whole life, nothing bad happens from a few cycles, look, everyone is doing it,”
“It’s dangerous, yes, but if you do it with someone experienced, there’s no risk,”
“Please, steroids have been used for nearly 100 years, it’s nothing new”…
Others are aware of the risks and still want to use them. I don’t judge. I am a health coach and my mission at Muskultura is to point the way toward a better version of oneself. Not the path toward achieving a goal regardless of the consequences.
That is why I emphasize, the point with hormones is not just to have them, because you can have them through artificial means – the point is to produce them in excellent quantities and for your organism to be in a state to react excellently to them. That is where a large part of health lies. Putting a substance in the body does not create these qualities, just as putting a hundred thousand dollars in someone’s pocket does not make them a master at earning money.
However, anyone who presents themselves as a guru of healthy living while using steroids on clients is definitely to be condemned. This is very easily noticed through “before and after” pictures. The uninformed think that 5 kg of lean muscle mass in 3 months is reality, often accompanied by 20 kg of fat lost. Even for adolescent beginners, such a result would be over-optimistic. Offering steroids to clients is not healthy living.
Even with the use of steroids, discipline, persistence, and dedication are required; one must exercise a lot, handle nutrition precisely, and make no compromises with sleep. But the fact that someone is disciplined, persistent, and dedicated does not make steroids healthy for one’s health.
Dino Nikolic
Creator and author of Muskultura
18.02.2026
