Anabolic steroids are a common class of steroid hormones that can influence a person’s physical and sexual development.
Besides its ability to boosts physical performance, this type of steroids can also be a main contributing factor to genetic hair loss in both women and men so if you are a regular user of this class of drugs, it’s best for you to know what you are dealing with.
Steroids actually represent a large group of chemical substances derived from naturally occurring or synthetic fat-soluble compounds. Many types of body’s hormones, reactive compounds and other constituents like cholesterol are steroids.
Women and men contain sex hormones of both sexes. For men, the dominant sex hormones are androgens mainly consisting of testosterone, Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and others. Estrogens and progestagens are the female sex hormones that are highly abundant in women. All of these steroid hormones play a crucial role in your sexual development and proper structural growth.
Steroidal drugs are compounds manufactured and synthesized from these natural hormones in order to influence or stimulate a reaction from your body.
The main classes of these steroids are:
- Sex steroids - This type of steroids usually includes androgens, estrogens and progestagens that are usually prescribed for Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and to treat hormone related conditions.
- Anabolic Steroids - The most well known among the 3, this class of steroids are responsible for stimulating muscle development and other male related characteristics.
- Corticosteroids - Mainly used medically, this class of steroids is used to mimic the activity of cortisone. Cortisone is produced naturally in the body to regulate inflammation, control auto-immune disorders and many other types of diseases. Many types of auto-immune related hair loss like Scarring Alopecia and Alopecia Areata utilize this treatment.
The real term for this class of steroids is Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids (AAS) because of its androgenic properties. Anabolic, which means ‘to build’ in Greek is represented by the steroid’s ability to help improve protein synthesis and cuts recovery time. Androgens on the other hand are a group of male sex hormones that control the development of masculinity and male sexual characteristic.
As most anabolic steroids are derived from androgens like testosterone and DHT, you are likely to face side effects from high levels of androgens in your body like
- Acne, oily face and scalp
- Low sperm count
- Deepening of the voice
- Liver damage
- Impaired sperm production
- Aggression (Roid Rage)
- Cardiovascular disease
Many other health conditions are also reported from unsupervised use of steroids so you have to be very careful.
First things first, not everyone that uses anabolic steroids will face hair loss. It seems that only people who are genetically predisposed to Male Pattern Baldness will notice an increased level of hair loss. If you are not genetically predestined to lose your hair, you are likely safe from this ordeal.
The cause of accelerated pattern baldness is due to the increased of the male hormones DHT and Testosterone in your body. Your body’s enzyme converts testosterone into DihydroTestosterone (DHT) a highly potent form of testosterone. In some males, a large portion of the hair in the front and top are very sensitive to this hormone and once the hormones bind with androgen receptors at the hair follicles, it causes the follicles to cease growing and eventually die.
Women are not spared too, high levels of testosterone in their bodies will also trigger diffuse thinning all over the scalp because most of the women’s hair follicles are much more sensitive to the male hormone. The situation can be much worse if they are using potent anabolic steroids with harsher androgenic effects.
