Starting Steroids at 18, Worth the Risk?

Hey guys! I wanted to ask how bad would it be starting steroids (test only) at 18+. I just turned 17 in late december and have been lifting for around 3 years. My morning weight is around 93kg. My raw squat max is around 500lbs and i will try my best to add as much pounds as possible naturally in the next year. I fell in love with squats in the past year (i used to hate them) and my PRs skyrocketed. I was very consistent, hard working and on a good program. My bench (130kg-140kg) and dead (500lbs+) are lacking a little bit. My concern was that i want to be competetive at world level in the 93kg sub junior category, but almost every top athlete is on juice. Would the benefit be worth the risk? How high is the risk and what is the risk? Ive done a lot of research but i wanted to know if it would be different in my case because most lifters starting at that young have little experiecne or lower numbers (but i still dont think my numbers are high even for my age, i dont think im near competition level). (Please note this is only a consideration and i would appreciate some honest answers and opinions, its not that i am even near certain about hopping on juice). Thanks in advance! (BTW i will post my squat on my instagram when my program is over and will test maxes for proof)

whether itā€™s ā€˜worth the riskā€™ is 100% a personal decision. Youā€™re asking us to tell you whether or not potentially doing long-term harm to you body and potentially winding up relying on a needle for the rest of your life is worth chasing a ā€˜sub junior 93kg squat recordā€™. Right? I donā€™t know how to answer the question for you. Maybe it is worth it to you. But thatā€™s how I would ask myself the question, if I were you.

ā€˜Is chasing this particular record , and perhaps chasing other records down the line, worth putting myself in a position where, if things go wrong, it may be very difficult for me to conceive a child later in life, and I may also have to rely on weekly testosterone injections for the rest of my life.ā€™ Those are the considerations. I canā€™t say what percentage risk it is. Itā€™s a thing that can happen. I know quite a few guys who have used steroids, some very minimally, who have gone through a lot of mental anguish because a few years later, they found themselves married and wanting to have kids, and being unable to do so. Itā€™s a tough thing.

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Iā€™ll also address the decision I made for myself:

When I began using, I fully accepted the fact that I could end up relying on TRT long-term. And thatā€™s exactly what happened for me. I ALSO waited until my son was born, and healthy, before I started. That was something I valued.

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Iā€™m definitely not condoning the use of steroids at 18, but purely out of curiosity could he just put a load of his boys away at a sperm bank so if he did mess himself up, he could still have some stashed away for later? I donā€™t know shit about sperm banks so I have no idea how long a ā€œsampleā€ is good for

Forever if itā€™s frozen and thawed right. Having sperm stashed away is cool and all, but explaining to a future wife that in order to get pregnant she may have to go through fertility treatments, which may involve many uncomfortable procedures for her and potentially self injecting to control her cycle for IUI or even more intrusive a full IVF cycle (both at a considerable cost) will suck major balls.

sure. but what kd said is essentially what I would say. Itā€™s not exactly ideal, to say the least. I had a friend who just wanted to get a vasectomy do what youā€™re suggesting. I considered it when I had mine as well.

you would also have to consider the risk of, say, a fire, mishandling, or anything else that would destroy/lose the sample.

Not to mention the letter every couple of years demanding you pay your extortionate storage fees!

Thank you for all the replies! I definetaly want to have a child (the normal way and not storing my sperm) and im also not really looking forward to being on TRT for the rest of my life. But can this also be a problem while only on testosterone (500mg EW)?

If this is the case anyway then the risk definetaly outweighs the benefits. What about starting later? What could be a safer age to start? And does it really have all that much to do with training experience?

yes, absolutely. thatā€™s specifically what iā€™m talking about. it doesnā€™t matter what steroid you take, they all shut down natural testosterone production.

there isnā€™t a safer age to start. I started at 30. The risk is always there. it just tends to become a more acceptable risk the older you get, ya know? National test production is down anyways, so thereā€™s more incentive to end up going the TRT route.

Steroid risk doesnā€™t change whether youā€™ve been training for 10 years, or havenā€™t ever touched a weight. The risk is the same. The reason it is not advisable to start steroids at a young training age is because there is still a lot of room to improve without them. People who start too early tend to over-rely on the drugs, rather than really learning to train and eat correctly. And they also generally donā€™t ever achieve much.

Ok, thanks for your reply and honesty, I really appreciate it!

Flip just told you everything you should considerā€¦ Itā€™s a personal decision e you need to be aware and accept all risks/ damages you are going to make. To compete, youā€™ll need to use steroids, even amateur level, if you want to do some damage, youā€™ll need to use it the right way. I started with 32/33 I donā€™t remember it exactly, but I was trying to compete as amateur level, State competitionā€¦ soā€¦ Iā€™ve made my decision with a looooot of research! I was lifting for 5 years round natural and tried to compete as naturalā€¦ after a few deceptions, I decided to use some steroid to get some medals. I did 4Āŗ place with 4 months of test/ bold/ oxan, then turned to test/ trenā€¦ but I was perfect with nutrition and trainingā€¦ SOooooā€¦ to end this with something to addā€¦ i would say, if you decide to do this shit, learn how to eat right, just because you are going to change almost everithing in your body, learn all you can about nutrition and use it for your goals.