Women and Steroids: The Truth by Jerry Brainum

 

 

About 25 years ago I participated in a bodybuilding seminar in Lafayette, Louisiana. Admittedly, I was not the focus or the "star" of the seminar. Instead, 1983 Mr.Olympia Samir Bannout and Robby Robinson, a Mr.Universe winner, were the featured players in the seminar. I was on board to discuss and answer questions about bodybuilding and sports nutrition, as well as supplements. But before the seminar began, I took Samir and Robby aside and told them to let me respond to any questions that may arise about bodybuilding anabolic drugs. I was aware that a common question when champion bodybuilders gave seminars was "Which steroids do you use and how much of them do you use?" Rather than put Robby and Samir on the spot, I thought I'd relieve them of that potential stress by answering the questions for them that pertained to any type of anabolic drug usage. Both bodybuilding champions readily accepted my offer. And so the seminar began. The first question came from a female in the audience. "What are the best types of steroids for women to use and how much should they use?" This question caused all three of us, Robby, Samir, and myself to be taken aback since such questions usually came from men. I then proceeded to answer the question to the best of my knowledge, since there was not back then, nor is there today a lot of information about the athletic use of steroids in women. I chose to list the possible side effects that steroids can induce in women. I pointed out that women produce 10 to 30-times less testosterone than do men, and this leads to a blood level of testosterone that is about 10-times lower in the average woman than it is in the average man with a normal testosterone level. As such, I added, any dose of anabolic steroids that a woman chose to use would already be a relatively large dose. I sealed my argument by then briefly discussing the possible side effects that can occur in women, mainly related to the androgenic properties of anabolic steroids. I more or less said that using anabolic steroids was the first step in changing a woman into a man (indeed, it's used for that purpose to treat transgender patients who want to convert from female to male).

Even after all these years, I can still recall the response of the woman who had asked about steroids that day. She listened patiently to all that I said about the effects of steroids in women, even the parts about some of the dire and permanent side effects that women can experience after using the drugs. After I had completed my litany of steroid effects in women, she said, "Okay, so how much should a woman use to get the best results?" All those warnings I had talked about seemed to mean nothing to this woman. I . . .