I am always disturbed to find out how little many steroid users and steroid dealers actually know.
Although I'll cover steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in more depth - use, legal status, abuse, use within sport, training drug free, how steroids are dealt etc.
- amongst other articles, below is some basic information about steroids There are three commonly known types of steroids - androgens (dominant male hormones), estrogens (dominant female hormones) and cortisones (often used as an anti-inflammatory drug).
The most abundant androgen in men is testosterone.
Increased testosterone is seen as beneficial for athletic performance because it influences our metabolism (body's processes) to increase muscle mass, strength, recovery & regulates less accumulation of body fat.
Subsequently, men will typically display a greater muscle mass, strength & lower body fat percentage than women, although I know many women that would argue our ability of greater recovery:-).
The mention above of testosterone aptly brings me to the reason the majority of us, certainly those that follow a gym biased article publisher like me, will associate the name steroid with anabolic steroids.
Anabolic steroids (a subgroup of androgens) have primarily been designed as a synthetic copy of testosterone, albeit typically lower in androgen properties.
So, encompassing all the "good" aspects that testosterone brings - muscle growth & recovery - while downplaying the "bad" aspects - oily skin, acne, baldness, body hair etc.
This is not to say that users of anabolic steroids will not experience androgenic side-effects, as androgen levels will still be increased and, certainly if higher doses are taken, the risk is greater increased.