How Are Anabolic Steroids Abused?

Some anabolic steroids are taken orally, some are injected intramuscularly, and some are available in gels or creams, which are applied to the skin. Sometimes doses used by abusers may be 10 to 100 times more than the doses required for treating medical conditions.

Cycling, stacking, and pyramiding:

• Cycling is a method of using multiple doses of steroids for a particular period of time and stopping for a specific period and starting again.
• Stacking is a process of combining several different types of steroids by users. Steroid abusers frequently “stack” the drugs, which means that they use two or more different anabolic steroids, combining oral and injectable types, and sometimes even include substances, which are intended for veterinary use. Abusers feel that the different steroids will combine and generate an effect on muscle size, which is more than the effects of each drug independently, which is not true.
• Pyramiding is a process in which users slowly increases the number of steroids or the dose and frequency of one or more steroids that is used only one time, and reaches a maximum amount at mid-cycle and gradually decreases the dose at the end of the cycle. Abusers think that pyramiding gives the body time to get adjusted to the high doses, and the drug-free cycle makes the body's hormonal system time to recover easily.

As with stacking, the recognized benefits of pyramiding and cycling are not supported scientifically.

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