Health consequences of androgenic anabolic steroid use
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The lifetime prevalence of androgenic anabolic steroid abuse is estimated to be around 6% for men, but there is limited knowledge about the side effects of these drugs. OBJECTIVE: To investigate mortality and morbidity amongst users of androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS). METHODS: In this retrospective matched cohort study, 545 male subjects tested positive for AAS in Danish fitness centres during the period 3 January 2006 to 1 March 2018. Subjects were matched with 5450 male controls. In addition, 644 men who were sanctioned because they refused to submit to a doping test and 6440 controls were included as a replication cohort. RESULTS: Mortality was three times higher amongst users of AAS than amongst nonuser controls (hazard ratio 3.0, 95% CI 1.3-7.0). The median annual number of hospital contacts was 0.81 in the cohort of AAS users and 0.36 in the control cohort (P < 0.0001). Acne, gynaecomastia and erectile dysfunction affected more than 10% of the androgenic anabolic steroid users, and the prevalence of these disorders was significantly higher than in the control group (P < 0.0001). The results could be replicated in a similar cohort. CONCLUSION: Androgenic anabolic steroid users have an increased risk of dying and significantly more hospital admissions than their nonuser peers. Side effects of AAS and their metabolites were highly prevalent. Given the high rate of androgenic anabolic steroid abuse, these side effects are of public health concern.
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After viewing fitspiration content, men are more likely to engage in excessive exercise and to take anabolic steroids with potential negative health outcomes.
“After viewing such content, men are more likely to engage in excessive exercise and to take anabolic steroids with potential negative health outcomes (Cafri et al., 2006; Horwitz et al., 2019; Mossman and Pacey, 2019; Tiggemann and Anderberg, 2020).”
From The degree to which the cultural ideal is internalized predicts judgments of male and female physical attractiveness (2022) · cites this paper as Horwitz et al., 2019
The Abstract and Discussion report adverse health outcomes among male anabolic-steroid users, including higher mortality and more hospital admissions than controls. The paper does not establish that viewing fitspiration content makes men more likely to exercise excessively or take steroids; it studied health outcomes among users identified through fitness-centre doping tests. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Horwitz, H., Andersen, J. T., & Dalhoff, K. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Horwitz, H.
- Venue
- Journal of Internal Medicine
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-11-20
- Volume
- 285
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 333-340
- ISSN
- 0954-6820 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2796
- OpenAlex
- W2901670312
- Cited by
- 204
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 10.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Anti Doping Denmark
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Doping in Sports
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Pharmacological Effects and Assays
- Keywords
- anabolic steroids, anabolic steroid abuse, mortality, morbidity, hospitalization, acne, gynecomastia, erectile dysfunction, doping sanctions, health effects
- MeSH terms
- Acne Vulgaris, Adult, Atrial Fibrillation, Denmark, Gynecomastia, Humans, Erectile Dysfunction, Infertility, Male, Male, Mortality, Cardiomyopathies, Retrospective Studies, Thromboembolism, Cohort Studies, Case-Control Studies, Anabolic Agents
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