Men Who Use Steroids Are 90% More Likely to Become Sterile, Doctor Warns
If you’re a regular ‘roid user, you’ll (hopefully) be acquainted with the most common health risks and side effects, which range in severity from acne and oily hair to an increased risk of prostate cancer and heart conditions. But did you know you may be sacrificing your ability to have children, too?
Steroid use has long been linked to various bedroom issues, but with UK users alone now totalling one million, scientists have coined a term for the phenomenon to highlight the huge number of people impacted: an evolutionary paradox known as the Mossman-Pacey paradox.
While muscular stature may make men appear more attractive to the opposite sex, taking steroids to achieve the look could turn them into “an evolutionary dud”, explains Dr James Mossman of Brown University, who discovered the link alongside Professor Allan Pacey of University of Sheffield.
“I noticed some men coming in to have their fertility tested and these guys were huge,” Dr Mossman told the BBC. “They are trying to look really big, to look like the pinnacles of evolution. But they are making themselves very unfit in an evolutionary sense, because without exception they had no sperm in their ejaculation at all.”
A stark conclusion for those who have dreams of being a dad. The question is, why? Researchers reckon using steroids deceives your brain into thinking your testes are over-producing sperm, prompting your pituitary glands to stop producing the hormones that make it. FYI, Mossman and Pacey say there is a similar theme in men who use medication to prevent male pattern baldness, which alters how testosterone is metabolised in the body.
“Baldness is a bit more hit-and-miss, but sales are going through the roof and that makes it an increasingly common problem,” Dr Pacey added. “I would say more anabolic steroid users are likely to become sterile than you would think – 90 per cent probably. Isn’t it ironic that men go to the gym to look wonderful, for the most part to attract women, and inadvertently decrease their fertility?”
The message is clear: muscle built with anabolic steroids comes with a hefty price tag.
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