\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to look good, so there\u2019s no time off,\u201d Steve says. Because of this, many have turned to what\u2019s popularly referred to as blasting and cruising, an approach that could be described as doing steroids\u00a0on steroids<\/i>. In practice, blasting and cruising means that users \u201cblast,\u201d or take high doses of steroids to pack on additional muscle, and then \u201ccruise\u201d on lower doses intended to maintain that size and prevent the negative side effects of crashed testosterone, which can happen after abruptly stopping steroid\u00a0use.<\/p>\n
Blasting, Steve explains, is unhealthy, and cruising needs to be done to restore some state of health. When blasting and cruising, which Steve considers to be an outdated technique, the user is on steroids the entire time, prolonging their exposure, increasing their risk of long-term effects, and taking no time to give their body a chance to recuperate.<\/p>\n
Both blasting and cruising and the polypharmacy are\u00a0higher profile than they\u2019ve ever been. With the advent of underground labs\u2014black-market facilities ranging from home brew to small factories where raw materials are turned into injection-ready compounds\u2014buying steroids went from a shady back-alley transaction to an easy online purchase. Selling steroids became just like any other online business, with sales promotions and buy-one-get-one-free offers.\u00a0Compounding pharmacies, which offer custom formulations of drugs, provide a route for gear, sometimes incidentally\u2014professional athletes have tested positive for PEDs after unwittingly taking prescription supplements contaminated with banned substances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Men who want doctor-prescribed testosterone can still get it, thanks to online clinics that vary in their discretion.\u00a0One doctor\u2019s research highlights how dangerous that can be. In a\u00a0secret-shopper study<\/a>, Florida urologist and andrologist\u00a0and host of the\u00a0Man Up Podcast<\/i>\u00a0which focuses on men\u2019s health issues, Justin Dubin sought out TRT from direct-to-consumer companies posing as a 34-year-old man who wanted to have children in the future. His blood work showed total testosterone levels of 675\u2014an above-average reading and far away from 300, when most clinicians will consider TRT.\u00a0<\/p>\n Based on his blood work and plans to have children, he was \u201cclearly not a good candidate\u201d for TRT, he says. Even so, six of the seven companies prescribed Dubin testosterone, and only three informed him of the fertility risks. Though TRT can increase libido and can treat erectile dysfunction in men with low testosterone, it can also cause spermatogenesis (the development of sperm) in the testes to sharply diminish or completely stop, resulting in infertility.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n