How vainness is fuelling Britain’s rising steroid epidemic

They were once the preserve of bodybuilders, bouncers and movie stars. But today in Britain, anabolic steroids are everywhere.

From gyms to school playgrounds, back alleys to front rooms, more than a million people in Britain are believed to be injecting themselves with synthetic testosterone.

And yet, behind the rippling biceps and thunderous thighs is a shocking portrait of sickness and death.

A landmark study published in March this year by Danish researchers found that steroid users are 2.8 times more likely to die within 18 years than their peers.

It’s a sobering statistic — an almost 300 per cent increased risk of death within two decades from conditions such as heart attack, stroke, liver and kidney failure, blood clots, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. And that’s before you account for non-fatal conditions such as infertility, diabetes and depression.

Steroids may make you strong and muscular. But it comes at a price. Why are so many men willing to risk everything in pursuit of the perfect body?

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are the most common type of ‘image and performance enhancing drug’ (IPED).

They are typically injected directly into the muscle though can be taken orally in tablet form or even as a cream.

In simple terms, AAS works by mimicking the effects of the male sex hormone testosterone, tricking the body into producing further muscular tissue.

AAS are almost exclusively used by men due to the adverse effects of testosterone in women such as a deeper voice, hair loss, enlarged clitoris and breast reduction.

(One professional female bodybuilder, who spoke to the Daily Mail on the condition of anonymity, admitted to taking testosterone and subsequently requiring breast implants and a wig to preserve her femininity.)

Jim McVeigh is a Professor of Substance Use and Associated Behaviours at Manchester Metropolitan University and has studied steroid use for over 30 years.

‘I worked as a nurse in a syringe and needle programme in Liverpool in the early 1990s,’ he told the Mail. ‘It was meant for heroin users but we started seeing these large fellas in their 20s turning up.’ That was when Jim knew something was amiss.

Having established a network of British academics on the subject of steroid misuse in 2022, Jim now believes the worst offenders are males over 45 looking to reverse the effects of ageing, and adolescents under 25 who ‘just want to look good on a lads holiday’.

Professor McVeigh’s instinct was backed up six years ago by a landmark study from Public Health Wales which found body image to be by far the most significant motivation for using IPEDs.

In other words, Britain’s growing steroid epidemic is fuelled by a pervasive and perverse vanity. And in the most extreme cases, this can even manifest as body dysmorphia — a clinical obsession with a perceived flaw in one’s own appearance.

Nash Jacic, a personal trainer in London with a PhD in philosophy, used steroids for over a decade between 1985 and 1995 during which time he competed as a bodybuilder around the world. ‘We shouldn’t hide that it helps in life to look good,’ says Nash. ‘Whether it’s in the workplace, dating or just for your self-esteem.’

Despite this, Nash has noticed a dangerous trend in today’s youth: ‘Young people today don’t want to wait,’ he told the Mail. ‘They don’t realise you can’t grow an apple in March — they look for a quick fix to everything, including body image.’

‘I only ever took steroids for between eight and 12 weeks before a competition,’ Nash continued. ‘Today, young people are taking too much and for too long. Some people take steroids all year round, and up to five times the level I ever did.’

Typically, steroid users will ‘cycle’ their drugs, taking breaks during which their bodies can recover. But as Nash suggests, there is a growing trend to use steroids relentlessly.

Lambros Lazuras, a professor of sport and exercise science at the University of Lincoln, explains how the trend towards perpetual steroid use has led to a practice known as ‘blasting and cruising,’ during which you alternate between high and low dosage.

Thirty-year-old Alex (not his real name) started using steroids in 2023. ‘Because I felt like I had reached my natural limits,’ he told the Mail. ‘When I’m blasting I spend about £300 a month on the drugs. When I’m cruising, it can be as low as £30 a month.’

So who are the manipulative people peddling these lethal drugs?

As Professor Lazuras explains, social media is home to a ‘proliferation of ‘roid-gurus’ — unqualified ‘influencers’ who promote steroids in a bid for online notoriety, gaining the trust of impressionable young minds in the process.

One of the most popular steroids on the market today is Trenbolone — often sold under its street name ‘Tren’. In the words of one online retailer, this is ‘the most powerful and effective anabolic steroids to ever exist.’ (The drug is also used by farmers to increase the muscle mass of cattle.)

As a class C drug, it is illegal to sell, supply or import any anabolic steroid. Anyone found guilty faces an unlimited fine or up to 14 years in prison (under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act). Steroids should only be dispensed on prescription by a pharmacist.

The Mail decided to test out just how foolproof this system is by attempting to buy Tren — and another steroid called Boldenone — over the internet.

A simple Google search produced a host of websites offering anabolic steroids at cut prices. All you need is a bank card and an address.

Using one particular website — which encourages payment in untraceable Bitcoin — the Mail purchased 10ml of both Trenbolone and Boldenone for just under £40 each, as well as a pack of ten needles with syringes for £4. The order was dispatched the very next day through Royal Mail and within 48 hours, the drugs dropped through the letterbox.

There was no age verification, no health warning and no inquiry as to the buyer’s intention. The reality is that purchasing steroid drugs online is as easy as buying bonbons from a sweetshop.

Equally alarming is how easy it is to learn about injecting the liquid. A quick search on the popular Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok found a plethora of graphic instruction videos.

In one such video — available to any user of any age — a hulking American man rolls his shorts up to reveal an enormous quadricep muscle.

He advises not to inject near the base of the leg as this can be ‘a little painful.’ Instead, he suggests: ‘Have a poke around until you find a nice squishy spot where it feels good.’ Not exactly medical advice, then.

He then removes the cap off a needle and jabs it into his muscle, pressing down on the syringe to release a flow of liquid into his bloodstream. It’s a graphic and upsetting watch. But just one of many such videos available to anyone with an internet connection.

The Tren purchased by the Mail came at a ratio of 100mg per ml of liquid. The Boldenone was three times stronger at 300mg per ml.

Advice found online suggests beginners should use between 100-200mg of anabolic steroid per week — roughly a fifth of the £40 Tren vial. However, experienced users can easily take as much as 800mg in a week — and that can be alongside other supplements including energy drinks and protein shakes.

So would taking these drugs immediately turn me — a spindly young man — into Hulk Hogan? Not quite.

Professor McVeigh stresses that steroids only work if you compliment them with lifestyle changes. ‘To get benefits you have to eat properly, train properly, sleep properly,’ says McVeigh. ‘People who use steroids in a haphazard way don’t see the benefits and assume they’re not taking enough. That’s when the trouble really starts.’

Nash Jocic, despite no longer using steroids, maintains the lifestyle necessary to make muscular gains. He works out five times a week with heavy weights and sticks to a strict no carbs diet: ‘Five eggs and cottage cheese for breakfast. 300g of chicken and salad for lunch. 300g of burgers and salad for dinner.’

Make no mistake, the results are astonishing. At 96kg and 180 cm tall, Nash is — comically — categorised as severely overweight by the NHS’s BMI calculator due to the sheer mass of his muscle. He has abs like a washboard and shoulders that reach up and out like the wings of an albatross.

It may be tempting to pursue this Adonis-like figure, but is it worth it?

In 2022, 23-year-old Cameron Rose was found dead at his home in Buckinghamshire. 

The toxicology report showed evidence of ‘abuse of anabolic steroids’ which caused a ‘cardiac death.’ His heartbroken mother later issued a desperate plea to other steroid users. ‘You are risking your life,’ Morag Rose warned. ‘We loved Cameron unconditionally and he loved us. Life will never be the same without him and he has left a huge chasm in our lives.’

In June 2020, just one month after the birth of his first son, gym-owner Lex Darne, 27, died from organ failure likely as a result of injecting testosterone bought over the internet. Lex’s mother recalls that fateful night, driving her son to hospital: ‘He was afraid of going in on his own. I last saw him at 8pm, I told him I loved him.’

One person who knows the dangers of steroid use better than anyone is 48-year-old former user Stefan, not his real name. ‘I’ve had three friends die in the past fifteen years likely as a result of using steroids,’ he told the Mail. ‘Two from heart attacks and another from suicide.’

Depression and suicide are frequently associated with steroid use due to the hormone ‘low’ experienced while cycling off the supplement.

Stefan stopped taking steroids in 2011 after nine years due to the side effects. ‘I was trying to have a baby,’ he said. ‘But my wife and I couldn’t conceive. I had a sperm test and found I had almost zero — and that’s because of the steroids.’

‘When I was using steroids, I could maintain an erection for seven or eight hours,’ Stefan continued. ‘I would have sex with my wife and then immediately watch pornography because my desire could not be sated.’

Anabolic steroids have a detrimental affect on sperm count because they diminish the body’s secretion of two other critical male sex hormones: follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. As the testes produce less sperm, they shrink in size, a process known as testicular atrophy.

Other side effects of steroid abuse can include: severe acne due to inflammation of the skin’s oil glands; kidney failure due to increased blood pressure; high cholesterol due to an increase of dangerous low-density lipoproteins in the blood; and even stroke due to elevated levels of a chemical known as homocysteine in the blood.

‘The number one rule is do not take steroids,’ Stefan concludes. ‘After all these years, I can’t even watch bodybuilding videos anymore because I know what they’re putting their bodies through — I can barely even talk about it.’

And the dangers of steroid use are only increasing. In 2012, the UK government made it illegal to import anabolic steroids into the UK. That has, according to Professor Lazuras, led to ‘the proliferation of underground manufacturing labs’ within the UK where quality controls are lax and contamination — intentional or otherwise — is an increased risk.

For most people, anabolic steroids are synonymous with cheating athletes such as cyclist Lance Armstrong and British sprinter Dwain Chambers, or even bodybuilders and actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson — all of whom have admitted to taking IPEDs.

However, the reality is that this once fringe sub culture has quietly entered the mainstream. And yet, the movement is no longer fuelled by a desire to be bigger, faster or stronger, but simply to look a certain way — typically for online praise and adoration.

Yorkshireman Dave Crosland, 53, has used steroids since he was 17. He was voted the ‘biggest biceps in Britain’ in 2016. But Dave also knows his drug use will kill him.

‘There is no doubt my steroid use will be the death of me,’ he said last year: ‘I expected to be dead by 50.’ And yet, he has no regrets: ‘[It’s] the price I paid for what I wanted to achieve, and I’m happy with what I achieved in life.’

When it comes to taking anabolic steroids, it’s clear it takes a whole different kind of strength to say no.