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Worst Case of Steroid-Induced Acne Ever?
[August 22nd, 2008] by Millard Baker
Mild to moderate acne, particularly on the back and shoulders, is a common side effect of anabolic steroids that is aggravated when more androgenic compounds like testosterone or methandrostenolone are used. Most steroid users are able to manage steroid-induced acne during a steroid cycle. Even though most steroid users do not experience severe acne, a beginning steroid user should never assume that they will react to steroids like “most people.” Severe acne is exceedingly rare (especially on the chest), it regrettably afflicted a 21-year old German bodybuilder who happened to use anabolic steroids giving a prestigious medical journal the opportunity to blame the resulting infection and scarring on steroids (”Bodybuilder scarred from steroids,” August 21).
Dr Peter Arne Gerber, from the Department of Dermatology at Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf, Germany, said moderate amounts of the drug could cause big problems.
“Usually in people taking moderate doses of the drug you see some sort of mild acne but in severe cases it can ulcerate.
Steroids may have initially induced acne in the case of the German bodybuilder but should NOT be held responsible for the resulting untreated infection that was inexplicably allowed to reach this graphic stage of ulcerations.
Dr Gerber added that the man did not stop taking the steroids once the skin problems developed because he was more concerned with losing muscle mass.
This type of severe acne is alarming and will probably be blamed solely on steroids. This case study is certainly to provide fodder for steroid education scare tactics. However, I think a steroid education program would be more effective if pictures of the more common cases of mild to moderate steroid-induced acne were used; using rare and unlikely instances of side effects to deter teenage steroid use is less likely to work.
UK experts said steroids were associated with this kind of acne but it was extremely rare to see such a severe case.
[...]
Jim McVeigh, head of substance use at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “It’s well documented that some individuals can experience severe acne.
“Often this is just a transient problem - most people wouldn’t consider it a significant barrier to using anabolic steroids.”
The BBC article would have been more balanced if it noted that steroids did not result in the severe skin infection in which proper medical treatment could have avoided or minimized.
Tags: acne, bodybuilder, steroids
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