Steroid use has its place.
In the late 1990’s I used steroids and testosterone therapy under medical supervision to counter the effects of HIV/AIDS wasting. As a professional dancer, my average body weight for most of my adult life was a lean 159 lbs, 5’9" man. I was admitted to the hospital In 1996 with a 105º temperature, out-of-whack blood chemistry up and down the list, malabsorption, fat malabsorption, and chronic diarrhea resulting in weight loss; now I was down to 135 lbs, all attributed to 40 t-cells, and an out-of-control viral load garnering me with an AIDS diagnosis.
They gave me IV fluid but no medications as the doctors at the hospital couldn’t find anything to treat. I didn’t have cancer, hepatitis, leukemia, or any other treatable disease, and the hospital beds were filling up. They got my temperature to 102º after three days, but they had no idea how to help me. My body was dying, and they needed the hospital bed to admit other patients that they could treat. In their experience in treating people with AIDS, the patients would usually die, so on the fifth day, they arranged hospice care and sent me home.
It took five weeks to break the 102º temperature. I was drenched in sweat every night and would have up to ten watery bowel movements a day. Even though I had to wear a diaper and lie on Chuck’s pads, I didn’t have enough energy to make it to the toilet most of the time and would only get, if I was lucky, two hours of sleep a night. It was brutal. I wanted to die, but I knew that it was up to me whether to fight and hang on or to take the easy route and just let go. A voice in my head told me, “Hang on. We need you here.” I chose to fight.
After two weeks of breaking the fever, I met with a holistic nutritionist to reboot my intestinal system. My colon was so distended, ballooned out, from the watery stool that we had to tailor food intake. I went on the Zone diet. I cut out milk products as I have fat malabsorption lactose intolerance, and still 135 lbs.
I started with my anti-retroviral medications two weeks after rebooting my nutrition. Slowly, over six months, I gained weight and regained enough strength to walk around one city block. The kids in the neighborhood said one day, “Man, you got fat!” I was starting to push out of a 36" weight at 165lb. My usual waist size is 30." I looked in the mirror and said, “Hm, so that’s what a man’s body looks like.” I was alive, which was most important – at that time.
By 1998, I decided that I needed to try to get back into shape, Maybe not my dancer’s body, but to a point where if ever I was to get sick again, I would have some meat on my bones not to worry about dying so easily. So, I met with a doctor who was participating in Steroid therapy for people with wasting syndromes associated with AIDS.
I did my first three-month cycle of Deca-Therapy in January 1999 but couldn’t put in consistent workouts, thus garnered no results. I was just too damn tired!
Discouraged, I waited six months before starting a second three-month cycle. This time, the results began to show. I gained muscle mass, lowered my body fat, and had more energy. I was on the road to recovery.
I did two more cycles of three months and three-month breaks in between. I was looking terrific. I was looking more like a bodybuilder now. It was in 2001 that one of my friends wanted to compete in the Gay Games in Australia the following year. Drug testing was required to compete, so I stopped juicing and focused on great form and breathing techniques. I have been able to maintain the gains that I had made while taking steroids under the doctor’s supervision and have gained weight naturally since then with protein drinks and some supplementation. I maxed out at 179 lbs in 2005; since then, now that I’m 62 years old, I feel great at 170 lbs.
My point is that using steroids for their designed purpose has its place, but nothing beats good, hard work. As the saying goes, “Perfect practice makes perfect.”
