There are a number of reasons why women take steroids. First, there are the female bodybuilders that want an edge over other competitors by bulking themselves up. The intention here is purely aesthetic; women want to look and feel as strong and beautiful as they deem it necessary. Taking steroids becomes especially necessary when the woman’s body is not genetically advantaged and working out and dieting doesn’t give her the body she wants. Instead of accepting natural limitations, these women choose to turn to the use of steroids. Another reason is self-defense. Being the generally weaker sex when it comes to physical qualities, women tend to be the prey of physical or sexual assaults that simply could have been avoided had they been able to protect themselves, at least as they see it. Some women who use steroids are in fact previous victims of rape, and in response have decided not to allow physical vulnerability have them preyed on again. Either for making themselves looks unfeminine or by adding power to their muscles, they use steroids to keep attackers away. On the other hand, there are also women who have muscle dysmorphia, a psychological disorder characterized mainly by obsessing over being not muscular enough and thus doing and overdoing efforts to gain such muscularity. Judging themselves to not look good enough, they resort to using steroids to build their bodies in addition to undergoing workouts and special diets. Women in this category are in great danger because they have no objective perspective of their bodies.

What makes women’s steroid intake of special concern is how these body enhancing drugs affect the female system in different degrees and levels. Designed to enhance masculinity as basically characterized by muscularity, men and women take steroids for such purpose. Once these drugs get into the body, however, there’s no stopping them from affecting it in many other ways. Female users in this respect are more disadvantaged. First are the physical side effects. In what seems like turning a woman into a man, female users develop excessive body hair growth, a reduction in the size of breasts, a deepening of the voice, a thinning of scalp hair, an enlargement of facial pores and an enlargement of the clitoris. More than physical changes, however, these will affect the woman in her social endeavors as well as private ones. It is one thing to be masculine, but to slowly turn male is another. Behavioral effects also abound. Coined as ‘roid rage,’ women who take steroids notably become more aggressive and irritable. Some are observed to want to pick fights, become more verbally abusive, and simply become angrier. Matched with women’s natural sensitivity to emotions and situations, she also becomes more restless, depressed, distracted and anxious, to name a few. Equally alarming are the effects of steroids inside the body. For one, the immune system is affected, thus making the woman more likely to acquire illnesses and be unable to recover quickly from them. Complications involving the heart, the liver, kidneys and gallbladder may also result not only because of the weakened immune system but the incompatibility of the drug with the female system as well. With testosterone or male hormone taking over the estrogen or female hormone levels, the reproductive system is similarly affected. The basic risk of contracting or acquiring infections with the needles used in injecting steroids is also a very real and immediate effect. These are the negative effects of steroids if used without any medical supervision.

Once women stop the use of steroids, the female body may not regained its original physique. Although there are steroids with either permanent or temporary effectiveness, all steroids pose lasting effects.

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