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A dad of three whose decade of steroid abuse has left him with a host of health issues says the drugs are “endemic” in Scottish gyms.
The West Lothian sales rep, named only as Darren, suffered dangerously high blood pressure levels, a temporary loss of libido, a receding hairline and high testosterone levels.
Darren, a teetotaller who has never smoked, said: “I put myself forward for this BBC programme knowing that years of steroid abuse would have taken a toll.
“There was no doubt about it. I knew there would be off-the-scale readings on the blood tests.”
Darren admits that people close to him knew but that this hadn’t stopped him.
(Image: Getty Images)
He said: “My partner knew about it, my parents knew about it.
“When I started out taking steroids, my parents found bottles in our house so this hasn’t been a shock to them.”
Darren has now changed his view of the drugs. He added: “The good thing about anabolic steroids is most – and it’s not all but most – of the problems they cause can be reversed.
“It’s a good time for me to find out what damage I’ve done and reverse it.
“And it lets other people see what the risks are.”
The spread of their use has surprised him. He said: “I believe steroids are very abused these days – far more than when I started out.
“When I started taking them, there was me and my mate taking them in the full gym.
“You’d have to know someone.
“Now I walk into the gym and, out of 10 guys I see, I would say eight are using – it’s that rife.
“This isn’t in specialised gyms for bodybuilders but commercial gyms you see in every town.”
Darren also thinks the internet has made the drugs more accessible.
He said: “They are so easy to get online that you can get them to your door via the Royal Mail the day after ordering them.”
Despite the dangerous side effects, Darren does not support an all-out ban.
He said: “There’s no safe ways to use steroids but there are careful ways and I think I’ve been careful over the years. Would I change anything? Probably not.
“The only thing I’d tell a younger me would be to be more careful and make more checks on their effects.”
