More men ‘playing Russian roulette with steroids’ in order to get muscular look

A GROWING number of young Scottish men are using steroids in response to the growing pressure to conform to a masculine muscular stereotype.

Professor Julien Barker of the University of the West of Scotland, who has studied the use of steroids for over two decades, claimed that some young men were playing Russian roulette with their health by taking unregulated drugs in an attempt to develop muscular physiques.

In the course of his research he has spoken to teenagers as young as 14 who were injecting steroids. “There is a huge amount of pressure on adolescents to have Action Man-type rippling physiques,” he said. “Steroids are one way that some are choosing to deal with that.

“You can easily buy them off the internet and they are unregulated so you don’t really know if they are safe. If you are injecting there are all sorts of health risks associated with that.”

Barker said that many men, from diverse demographics, reported they wanted to be admired by other men, using muscles as a status symbol.

“We need to be talking about those risks in schools and look at informing people,” he said.

“Advertisers also have their part to play in being more responsible about the images they portray.”

John Campbell, of Glasgow’s Performance and Image Enhancing drug clinic – a partnership between substance misuse charity Turning Point and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – said he had been seeing a steady increase of people using the clinic over the last five years, with about a 14 per cent rise in the last 12 months.

The clinic, which runs a needle exchange, offers advice about harm reduction and drug alternatives for those using steroids, human growth hormones and tanning pigments. It saw about 3,000 people last year.

Campbell said: “Some people are looking to improve their physique. That might be because they want to look good, to compete as body-builders or even for occupational reasons. It can be beneficial if you work in security for example.

“Many more people will only use them once or twice and then realise that on their own they don’t work. You still need to be training hard – it is not a quick fix.”

He added: “Some oral steroids can lead to liver damage because they are highly toxic. We see a lot of people with problems when they reach the end of a cycle; they have problems with libido, erectile dysfunction and low mood because their natural testosterone production has stopped.

“It’s part of our job to encourage people to take appropriate breaks and use them responsibly, as well as find alternatives.”