Are anabolic steroids and infertility related?

Our inquisitive readers with enviable regularity and constancy very often ask the same well-worn question:

1. Will I be “half past five” from anabolic steroids?
2. How are anabolic steroids and infertility related?
3. What side effects are there from pharmacological drugs used in sports medicine?
4. Will I be able to have children after several courses of taking such and such pills?

I have one good friend Victor, and today I will tell you one instructive story from his life, and, alas, not with a happy ending, but a sad and sorrowful one that is still going on...

Victor became interested in bodybuilding from his early youth, especially since his natural genetic data was very conducive to this sport. All the men in his family had large bones, were strong, tall, broad-shouldered, with pronounced, well-emphasized sculpted muscles. So our hero’s muscles grew right before his eyes, in general, it was very visually noticeable and he progressed quickly in training...

Having competed at several local junior competitions and undeniably won them, our hero began to set his sights on higher and more ambitious goals. Well, there the competition is completely different and the level of participants is not at all inferior to his indicators... So Victor decided to resort to the help of chemistry. I started using various types of anabolic steroids, keeping up with the latest in sports pharmaceuticals, looking for literature on this topic...

Here, of course, it is worth noting that recharging with steroids gave him a further anabolic push forward - he began to progress at an even greater pace, increased in volume, reduced the amount of subcutaneous fat, acquired excellent definition... Well, as a result, further medals and cups, new upper steps all more serious pedestals... With victory came success and money, your own home, a car, the attention of women...

Years passed, my friend, having achieved serious victories, both on the sports and on the men's front, eventually matured, got married and settled down... Well, like any normal man, he began to think about procreation.. He really wanted a son, to pass on all my sports experience, raise him to be a real man and rejoice at his victories...

But it wasn’t to be... No matter how hard he and his wife tried, nothing worked... At first they didn’t pay attention, then they started sounding the alarm and going to clinics, taking all sorts of tests, but still all their attempts were in vain... At last the time I met Victor, it was not so long ago, he and his wife were going to go to the clinic of Professor A.M. Feskov - a very famous eco-center for fertilization and reproduction...

It turned out that Victor, due to prolonged use of anabolic drugs, which greatly affect a person’s hormonal levels, had undergone some irreversible processes in the body, and as a result - sedentary and dead sperm in large quantities - in fact, first-degree infertility. What did you think? For everything in life you have to pay! And if you have a sharp increase in money and success, it means it will decrease in something else - these are the laws of life, the so-called cycle of happiness in nature. And here's the result: infertility...

I would like to believe that modern medicine can help our hero and his wife in this trouble. Well, you, our dear readers, think again, “is the game worth the candle?” — is it necessary to risk your health for the sake of some fleeting victories?