Many years ago when I used to go to the gym there was one lifter who was apparently quite wealthy (and extremely insecure), who would park his Maserati on the curb out front instead of in a parking spot like a normal person, and was so roided out that his skin was literally purple from the lack of circulation. Obviously this kind of behavior originates from severe psychological trauma and feeling like he needed to compensate for many things and be big and rich enough to defend against any potential threats in his life, but while there are a few medically appropriate scenarios to use steroids, getting large muscles from their use is extremely harmful.

While steroid abuse is not limited to men they are most commonly used for bodybuilding or treatment of aging in males, and because most of us are familiar with men having testosterone many think that adding a little bit more testosterone or other anabolic steroids is just fine in trying to pursue fitness goals. In fact it is extremely inappropriate to use these kinds of steroids in a healthy body because hormone homeostasis (normalcy) is a purposefully designed state by our biology in which there is not too much or too little hormones, to achieve the right effect and function in human health. Adding extra of anything to the human body can often have deleterious effects and interrupt other metabolic pathways, and this is very true of additional steroids added to the body which then causes unintended consequences that many people are not aware of.

Most of the known side effects of steroid abuse in bodybuilding are things like acne and hair loss, and it is really ironic to see huge, insecure men dosing steroids because they want to be big only to then start wearing hats all the time because they are now insecure about their hair loss, when in fact there is nothing wrong with being a normal size or with losing hair (and this coming from the person (me) who discovered the cure to hair loss). But steroid use can come with extremely serious side effects such as cardiovascular disease or liver failure. I knew of two guys who did just one steroid course together and both ended up requiring treatment for mild liver failure. The more serious complications are not separate from the acne and hair loss, they are all part of the same problem as the body is not a collection of disparate systems but one integrated, wholistic unit and mild symptoms from steroid use like acne occurs due to the very same reaction that also causes liver failure. Other crazy side effects from using steroids are an enlarged head, navel, and shrunken testicles and penis.

Steroids don’t affect transgender people in this way because they already lack the levels of hormones required to cause such side effects, and the problem isn’t simply taking steroids but taking them addition to the levels we already possess such as occurs in cisgender men. One of the major problems in steroid use is that men don’t understand that the harmful side effects which occur from dosing anabolic steroids is in fact the increase in estrogen which occurs because testosterone and other hormones actually aromatize into estrogen and that estrogen is made from testosterone and other androgens. Most people also have a negative option of estrogen because of misogyny, not understanding that women also have testosterone and estrogen has many roles in the male body including the growth of muscle, but the reason estrogen causes negative health effects in men is because estrogen is a hormone of growth, not femininity, and women have higher levels of the hormone progesterone which protects their body from inappropriate growth effects of high estrogen. Men do not naturally have enough progesterone to protect against those effects (and if we did we would change to female because it is the composition and ratio of hormones that determine gender appearance), so estrogen resulting from steroid abuse then starts to trigger pathways in the body which promote the increased uptake of iron which then causes acne and inhibition of mitochondrial respiration in the scalp which causes hair loss. The more serious effects like cardiovascular failure and liver failure are caused for similar reasons—estrogen inhibiting normal mitochondrial respiration because of growth-triggered phases of cellular function—but also because all hormones must be detoxified through the liver, and adding extra hormones such as what occurs in steroid use exhausts sulfate stores and burdens the liver which eventually loses the ability to detoxify, but which is also likely a consequence of the dieting behaviors practiced by those abusing steroids since this also impairs normal metabolic function and deprives the liver of nutrients it requires to successfully detoxify substances like old hormones, stress hormones, and excess estrogens.

The male penis and testicles also shrink from steroid use because the body already knows that high androgens result in the increase of aromatization and excess of estrogen, so it responds (is designed to respond) to high estrogen by causing the male genitals to shrink so they don’t produce as much testosterone, so taking steroids also downregulates your own, natural production of testosterone. It’s the biggest irony behind steroid abuse in body building—you may get a big body but you will lose your big penis and balls. They can and do grow back if you don’t cause too much damage, but that’s quite a gambit to take with your health just so you can look like an overinflated basketball, and not being the only side effect it is extremely dangerous and dumb to take steroids.

Steroid use is also so ridiculous because its function is simply to make for the stress of starvation and dieting that most people obsessed with their bodies practice. Dieting induces the release of the catabolic hormone cortisol which, in opposition to the effects of anabolic hormones, tears down lean muscle into useable sugar to literally prevent you from dying during your diets and starvation. If you just don’t diet it is extremely easy to build muscle and put on weight—there is an entire chapter called “free muscle” in my book in which I discuss the factors that promote effortless weigh gain and muscle retention. No, you won’t get big as the roided out assholes but they look incredibly ridiculous and insecure, and not only does maintaining blood sugar promote the growth of muscle it also prevents many health problems, so not only can you get a great, fit body but you will also be emotionally happier and live longer than those dumbasses.

The insecurity behind the desire to be big and use steroids also originates in childhood when we are traumatized by early life experiences and believe that being a small child was what caused our trauma when in fact it was abusive adults and older people who were the cause. I am six-foot-seven and I have been sexually assaulted on three different occasions—being big does not prevent bad things from happening to us, and the belief that money or size can prevent harm or stress in our lives only leaves rich and bloated people feeling even more perplexed and stress when it does occur. Instead of getting big, addressing trauma can and does relieve us of insecurity, fear, and builds natural confidence and inner strength necessary to meet life’s challenges. You can learn it by watching my YouTube instructional or reading my book on child abuse. The biggest irony is that getting big doesn’t resolve people’s insecurities. In fact it usually exaggerates them and causes even more extreme and destructive behaviors since people remain confused and frustrated that achieving their goals didn’t in fact resolve their fears and insecurities, because that’s not the way to do it. Instead, learning to have compassion for yourself, and empowering yourself with skills to handle stress and resolve trauma is the proper way to address such problems, not injecting steroids.