Students on steroids: “Brown liquid came out if I squeezed my nipples”

“Brown liquid came out if I squeezed them”, he told us.

Gynecomastia is the development of breast tissue in males, sometimes leading to lactation. It is a common side effect of using Nandrolone, a steroid commercially sold under the name ‘Deca-Durabolin’.

“Did it make you want to stop?” I ask. “No, it is a negative and it made me think about it but I still think the positives are better,” says the steroid induced man-beast in front of me when I ask him about the liquid coming out of his nipples.

He is a beast. At his peak he weighed 110kg of pure muscle. With his wish to remain anonymous, let’s call him Lance. The private use of steroids is still not illegal in the UK and Lance isn’t competing for the university, so he isn’t doing anything wrong. Or is he?

How many drugs are you on Lance?

“I still think it’s wrong,” says another clean fitness-freak friend. “I’ve put all this effort in and I see people who have cheated their way there.” When asked if he felt steroid use was just the next level, his response was “No, evolution is meant to be natural.”

The debate around steroid use has heightened in the past few years, with the ideas about what is attainable without the use of performance enhancing drugs being wildly different from the facts.

Tab Interviewee and ‘natural’ competitor Rob Riches recently tested positive for banned substances.

But as heroes such as Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell get caught and their reputations permanently damaged, are many of these athletes starting in our universities, especially with the American college system producing so many of their sports men and women?

Speaking to a friend who competes for UOB gymnastics and cycling, I asked him if he thought he’d ever competed against people on steroids. He couldn’t answer. This in itself is telling, as he didn’t have the confidence to give a definite no. His answer about use at the university more generally, however, may be shocking; “Oh yeah definitely, you go around the uni gym and even there you can easily tell some guys are on steroids.”

With instructions often not in English, users normally have to rely on information available online for dosage.

Our original interviewee, Lance, agrees that you have your work cut out to avoid getting caught. He explains to me all the different courses he’s been on (he’s 22 now and has been doing steroids since 18), and how all the drugs differ. Their side effects, how to stop the side effects, how to get hold of them (it’s illegal to sell them) and how to use them safely.

With this student sub-culture apparently prevalent, we attempted to contact students who had turned to steroids to give them the edge when representing the university.

The following interviewee wishes to remain anonymous, but wanted it to be clear that the use of steroids was still confined to a minority.

What have you taken? A combination of Testosterone, Nandrolone, Dianabol and Anavar. Anavar (my favourite) is used a lot in Summer to lose fat and tone up muscles.

Where did you get them from? Most people buy through somebody they know, but some websites sell them too.

How much did they cost and how did you afford them? Dianabol costs around £40, lasting 6 weeks, causing rapid muscle mass gain. Money saved from 1 or 2 less nights out! However, cycles of steroids can cost hundreds.

How did it affect your performance? Increased strength, muscle mass and tone. Running was harder due to increased mass but quickly adapted to this.

What influenced you into choosing taking steroids? Wanting to look insanely aesthetic, Greek god-esque.

So it seems that the culture of using performance enhancing drugs begins at a university level, forcing the choice of whether to be a lifetime clean athlete on students as young as 18. With this in mind, if the regulating bodies want to stop doping in the professional field, the focus needs to be on awareness at a much younger age.