Impact of steroids on sexual function
Introduction
Many male persons have a negative self-body image and low self-esteem, caused by various factors. Society and pop culture set how ideal male and female body should look like, and people are generally fond of trend following. Some men have implemented the thought that only “alpha males”, those men who can compare with athletes, actors and male models are appealing to women, in their head, and they keep their insecurities in themselves, as they’re being afraid that other men could label them as weaklings. Such delusions and other factors may encourage them to start taking the synthetic steroids similar to male sex hormone testosterone because it looks like an easy path to the ideal male body compared to hard exercises and strict diet, which may require many months and years. But is it worth it?
Testosterone and sex drive
Sex drive, also known as libido is a nonclinical term that describes the interest in sexual activity with a partner or by yourself, and the lack of sex drive may be associated with mental or physical problems. Testosterone affects the sex drive, but sexual desire is related to many health factors like diabetes, cancer, heart and thyroid problems which may lower it. Low testosterone levels can reduce the sex drive, while also inducing the erectile dysfunction and in that case, a testosterone replacement therapy may help in sex drive improvement.
Anabolic steroids
Anabolic steroids indeed have legitimate medical use, and doctors prescribe them to treat male hypogonadism when a man doesn’t produce enough testosterone on his own. They are also used in some cases of cancer to improve the body weight, as they help the body to retain proteins, which are essential elements for muscle growth, and to improve the hemoglobin concentrations, because testosterone is related to increased production and release of erythropoietin, a hormone which stimulates the blood cell production in bone marrow. Doctors never prescribe steroids for young, healthy people, so the use of steroids for the accomplishment of the perfect bulky body is not only dangerous but also illegal.
Steroid users often rely on rumors about determining the dose they will use, thus additionally endangering their own health. Those who misuse steroids daily take very large doses either orally, in the form of tablets, or injected in the muscle, and those doses contain hundreds of milligrams of steroids, while doctors prescribe only 1 to 5 mg for legitimate medical purposes.
Under the untrue assumption that taking more steroids will bring better results rapidly, users usually take the combination of several types of steroids in combination with other drugs. That process is the so-called "stacking". Users also take steroids in cycles for 6-12 weeks, followed by a pause to avoid developing tolerance on them.
Psychological effects of steroids
Abuse of steroids can have far-reaching consequences on the mind, including the temporary personality changes. Users can exhibit uncontrolled aggression and violent behavior, in addition to severe mood swings, intermittent manic and depressive episodes. Expressing of pathological jealousy and extreme paranoid irritability are not rare, and a feeling of invincibility may lead to a disturbed sense of reasoning which may endanger the emotional relationship with a partner. Users can lose interest in everyday life activities and feel the loss of energy, and the feeling of boredom. They may have a problem with restricting the use of steroids and thus develop tolerance to their use, which requires the intake of larger amounts in order to achieve the desired muscle building.
Over time during which they do not use steroids, chronic users may experience withdrawal symptoms that intensify the negative psychological effects of steroid use.
Sexual function
At first, the sexual function is increased in steroids use, but over time, the body gets used to them. After the prolonged use of steroids, the sexual desire is decreased, men have difficulty in achieving of erection, and even after the stopping the usage of steroids, the natural level of testosterone is disturbed, as they cause testosterone inhibition, a lowered testosterone production that affects steroid users. The body responds to the foreign substance similar to testosterone with negative feedback by the hypothalamus. Hypothalamus is responsible for the release of many hormones, including testosterone, and when it spots the high levels of testosterone or similar substance in the organism it responds by sending signals to reduce the testosterone production because it processes that information like there is too muchin the organism, so production needs to be stopped. This negative feedback leads to shrinking of testicles, low sperm count, loss of sex drive, erectile dysfunction, negative psychological effects, and other low-testosterone related symptoms. While those effects are mainly temporary in short testosterone usage, if it’s prolonged it could lead to irrevocable testosterone inhibition, meaning that the body could never produce any testosterone ever again. In addition to those problems, steroid use may cause a feminization, because, in normal circumstances, some of the testosterone is converted into estradiol, a female sex hormone. When a high concentration of an androgen (testosterone and similar hormones) is found in the body, that situation leads to their increased conversion into female sex hormones. Due to these hormonal imbalances, men can develop enlarged breasts, a condition called gynecomastia.