absolutely, unequivocally yes, there is evidence of this. The question is not ‘does it happen’, the question is ‘how often and why’. The cases are rarer for younger people, the duration of the cycle affects recovery, and so does which compounds are used. I know one guy who ran deca for 10 weeks, and subsequently essentially couldn’t get an erection for over a year after. I think this was only the second cycle he’d ever run. I know a guy who has been on TRT since he was 19 after running 1 or 2 cycles as a teenager. I never fully recovered from my own first cycle, even though I ran a proper PCT, which is why I’m on TRT now when I’m not running cycles. A lifetime of needles is no joke, man. And unless you have great health insurance, that will mean huge ongoing doctor bills for the rest of your life, or you can rely on the black market forever. Neither is particularly appealing.
Now, as to how common it is, I can’t give you a statistic, because none are available. This isn’t something that gets researched, for obvious reasons.
I don’t think my anecdotes regarding steroid use are exactly flimsy though. Enough anecdotes do add up to statistically relevant numbers.
Even more important, though, I have come across exactly 2 people, in the hundreds I’ve met who use steroids, who only ran 1 cycle and didn’t do another. Those aren’t great odds. You should go into this maybe with the hope that you’ll have the self control to keep it at 1, but not the expectation. Expecting to be an outlier as far as self control and discipline go is foolhardy. Expecting to be an outlier in this regard when you’ve already struggled with drugs is just… I don’t know what to call it.
The only reason I post on here is to give people information that I have found relevant, and to give the advice that I think a younger me should have heard. I compete in a non drug tested sport at a world-class level, so I can tell you that I have met A LOT of people who use steroids, and are pretty willing to be honest and open about their use. This has led me to be able to gain a lot of knowledge most people will never be accumulate. Most of what you read on the internet comes from people with far less first hand knowledge than me.
So in your case, my main goal here is for you to really understand the realities of the world you’re jumping into, and be prepared for it. You spent 8 months of your life doing blow, and you said it almost killed you. You need to be prepared for your steroid journey to be a much longer one than 8 months, particularly if you intend to continue on as a competitive athlete.