Health professionals have been warned to prepare for a potential anabolic steroid health crisis as more young men use them to enhance their body image.
Alarming scientific evidence is beginning to link long-term anabolic steroid use to major health harms including heart attack, says visiting US expert Professor Harrison Pope at Harvard Medical School.
"For more than 10 years now we have been worrying that we will soon start seeing the impact of long-term anabolic steroid use, and now it is beginning to happen," Prof Pope said.
"Users need to be aware, clinicians need to be aware and services need to prepare. In the US, a potential public health crisis is looming."
Prof Pope said the findings of a US study published this year - the first large controlled study of its kind - showed three out of 86 of the steroid users recruited had already experienced a heart attack by age 45.
Another study has shown that many men experience protracted severe hypogonadism, where testosterone levels plummet and the testes shrink. This can result in a drop in libido and erectile dysfunction.
Prof Pope says there is also new evidence linking high levels of testosterone and other AAS to premature death of brain cells.
Steroids are increasingly being used for body image enhancement as opposed to performance. The majority of individuals who use of AAS are not elite athletes or professional bodybuilders.
The results of a national study, to be presented at the APSAD Alcohol and Drugs Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, found two-thirds of young men who began injecting drugs within the past three years were using steroids, overtaking methamphetamine and heroin use.
Concerningly, men who use AAS are reluctant to engage with health services. The study also showed 35.23 per cent of men reported having visited a doctor despite experiencing concerns about adverse effects.
Dr Mathew Dunn, a senior lecturer at Deakin University, has been researching performance enhancing drugs for many years and says users need to start better considering the implications of injecting steroids.
"We believe that anabolic steroid use in Australia is increasing. We know the immediate and short-term harms they cause, but we've always been less clear about the long-term impacts," Dr Dunn said.
"This is clearly an area we need to understand better and communicate to those using these drugs," he said.
