💊 Medication
anabolic-androgenic steroids
Testosterone-derived muscle-building drugs. They roughly double training-driven muscle gain, but independent evidence ties them to real harms — raised cardiovascular risk, testicular atrophy and infertility, and, in adolescents, premature growth-plate closure. Psychological effects (aggression, cognition) are real but mostly show up at high doses in a subset of users.
3 well-supported · 0 disputed. This shows how settled each sub-question is, not whether anabolic-androgenic steroids is "good." Direction lives in each claim below.
The 4 claims about anabolic-androgenic steroids
Each keeps its own verdict — we never average them away.
Do anabolic steroids cause testicular shrinkage and reduced fertility?
Strong support Yes — steroids suppress the body's own testosterone and sperm production, shrinking the testes and often causing infertility; it usually recovers over months after stopping but sometimes incompletely.
Do anabolic steroids impair cognitive function?
Strong support Leans yes — long-term high-dose users show poorer cognition and brain changes on imaging, so the evidence points to real cognitive harm, with the caveat that much of it comes from a single research group.
Do anabolic steroids increase cardiovascular disease risk?
Strong support Yes — a nationwide cohort and imaging studies show steroid users have more coronary plaque, worse heart function and adverse lipids; long-term cardiovascular risk is clearly raised (short courses may not show acute changes).
Do anabolic steroids increase aggression and anxiety?
Contested Only partly — controlled testosterone trials find increased aggression/anxiety in a minority at high doses, not uniformly; the blanket 'roid rage' framing runs ahead of the controlled evidence, even though heavy real-world abuse is linked to mood problems.
Educational only, not medical advice. Hub descriptions are curated for honesty; see the methodology.