Love drug

She loves doing the work, feeling the burn, getting the muscles. But it's the side-effects which really turn her on. Peta Bee on why more and more women are taking anabolic steroids

Catherine, 29, 5'6", cropped hair, seriously pretty, with skin that makes you wish you'd been taking your multivitamins, is sipping mineral water and smoking in a West London bar. When she stands up to take a call on her mobile phone her jeans slip to her hips, revealing a flash of bottle-tanned, washboard stomach. The only curves you see are the contours of her muscular, Venus Williams arms.

Catherine's athletic femininity may look like the product of obsessive and punitive work-outs in the gym. In fact, she barely had to sweat for it. Catherine is one of a growing number of women who have taken, or are taking, anabolic steroids in order to lose weight fast. Clenbuterol has been her anabolic steroid of choice, for it comes with a bonus side-effect amid a plethora of detrimental ones: it boosts the libido. More and more women are downing – or even shooting up – clenbuterol for that reason alone.

Catherine was introduced to the Viagra of the gym circuit by her personal trainer. "I was in the same boat as a lot of people," explains Catherine, a researcher in a television production company. "I wanted to lose weight, but could never stick to a diet and it was getting me down. I was about a stone over my ideal weight of eight and felt too unfit for a former aerobics champion. Last January I joined the gym near work and said in my induction session that I wanted to be toned all over with arms like Madonna. I had three months to get rid of it before I went to Australia with my friend. That was my big incentive."

Three weeks later Catherine hired a personal trainer at her local gym to help her get results more quickly. "I was impatient and had really launched myself into the whole fitness thing by then," she says. "When I told the trainer that I needed to be in shape quickly, he just said, 'no problem, but we'll need to look at your diet'. He then asked me if I'd be interested in taking a supplement that would help me replace fat with muscle. He told me it was a steroid substance.

"He skirted around the fact that it was the real thing by telling me it was more of a diet pill and everyone was using them. Anyway, I trusted him. He pointed out this gorgeous-looking woman in the gym who was on them and that was enough for me. 'Get me some of that!' I said." Within days, at a cost of £45, her trainer provided Catherine with six weeks' supply of clenbuterol tablets in 20 microgram doses to be taken in a two-days-on, two-days-off cycle.

"He told me they were the best fat burners around, but they might make me sweat and could affect my sleep patterns. He also said they would increase my libido."

Typical steroid users are no longer bulging-eyed beefcakes such as Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, banned from sport after testing positive for using the drug Winstrol. Last month, UK Sport announced that due to the emergence of more effective and less easily detected performance enhancers, hardly any professional sports people now use steroids. Gymgoers and amateur sports enthusiasts have taken their place. Last year, the British Medical Association estimated that steroid use was up to 13 per cent in some gyms around the country.

"By far the biggest users of steroids are recreational users, including gay men and young women," says Pat Lenehan, director of the Drugs and Sport Information Service, set up by the NHS, in Merseyside in 1994.

"Improving the way you look is the most significant factor in their use. It is difficult to quantify precisely how many women take them, but the signs are that more are using steroids as a quick fix to drop a dress size," he says.

"One of the side-effects of their use is enlargement of the female clitoris and some research has shown a rise in the number of women using the drug purely to enhance their sex life. Libido enhancement is one reason that steroid use is on the rise in America and may rise here."

In a BMA report published last year, one third of GPs questioned said they had seen patients who either freely admitted taking steroids or confessed when asked about various symptoms spotted by their doctor.

In some parts of the country, as many as half of all GPs have seen steroid users in their surgeries. And, says Pat Lenehan, figures show that more than one third of all new drug users were on steroids: "It is a huge problem."

That's certainly not how the women who whip their figures into shape within weeks see it. Derived from the male sex hormone testosterone, anabolic steroids cause increased muscle mass, although not necessarily bulk, reduce body fat and quicken recovery times from workouts. Users report that they also give a mental boost, mainly through improved sexual confidence and a better body image.

"For starters I felt more enthusiastic about sex because I was generally less tired," says Catherine. "But I also enjoyed the whole sex thing. Me and a girlfriend, who was also taking steroids , talked about how neither of us had ever had such powerful orgasms before. That is one of the real pluses of taking them."

On the website www.anabolicsteroids. com, one of many virtual fanzines for users, dozens of women have posted entries about similar experiences. "My friend and I are using Winstrol V, not a lot of it, but every week, as we both share the same ideas to look good," says 25-year-old Nancy from New York. "We have seen definite improvements to our bodies.

"But along with the growing attention we receive for our appearance since we started taking steroids six months ago, we began to notice something else that wasn't noticeable to anyone else but ourselves and our boyfriends. Our clitorises had enlarged. Sex feels very different and far better and I'll take them for that reason as well as the fact that this summer will be my best, because I am 25 and don't look a year over 18."

Catherine felt similarly elated. Within a month of taking the steroid tablets and continuing her gym programme, Catherine noticed dramatic changes in her body shape. "It was like somebody had put things on fast forward," she says. "People started complimenting me on my weight loss and asking what sort of exercise I was doing. I lost virtually all the weight I had wanted to lose in that first month and came down three cups in my bra size."

Other effects were less welcome. "I am usually calm, but I became very edgy at work and irritable at home. My boyfriend and I were rowing all the time," she says. "At first I didn't put it down to the clenbuterol until I was chatting to a friend at the gym who had tried something similar. She had stopped after it gave her panic attacks and palpitations. Another friend of hers almost lost her job because she began yelling at a colleague at work. In a way those stories comforted me – it seemed like everyone was at it."

Side-effects like these are often the price to pay for long-term steroid use. Hair loss, acne, deepening of the voice, growth of body hair and smaller breasts are as common in women as shrunken testicles and enlarged breasts are in men. Both sexes, say the British Medical Association, are at higher risk of heart disease, liver disease and cancer.

Many remain unperturbed by the dangers: needle exchange centres in the UK are seeing increased numbers of steroid-users among their clients, more and more of whom are young professionals in well-paid jobs. Users are also getting younger both here and in America. The number of American teenage girls who admit to taking steroids has doubled since 1991 to almost 200,000, according to Professor Charles Yesalis, head of exercise and sport science at Pennsylvania State University. "I'd say around 500,000 to 600,000 kids in the US have used these drugs at some time," he says. "Right now steroid use is at an all time high. We've shown use down to 13 and 14-year-olds. It's scary for anyone to use these drugs, but in particular, women and children."

It is a trend likely to be mirrored in the UK. In the most recent survey of 14- to 15-year-olds, conducted by researchers at University of Essex three years ago, steroids were found to be the third most common drug offered after amphetamines and cannabis; more than 2 per cent of the teenage boys questioned admitted they had used them. What concerns Yesalis most is the risk of long-term physical damage. Steroids can stunt growth so that teenagers who use them reach only 95 per cent of their adult height. "There are the well-publicised risks to men and women – but we don't yet know the full effects they could have on a woman's reproductive systems," he says. "When a young woman takes these drugs, the possibility of permanent damage is significant because their bodies are still maturing."

In Catherine's case, the drugs she took came in tablet form, but many users progress to injectable steroids which are said to be less risky to the liver. Most take a cycle of the drugs for six to 12 weeks and then break for a similar duration before repeating the pattern. Cycles cost as little as £25, although the average user pays £50, still making them barely more expensive than a supply of vitamins and minerals. And, according to Ralph Heron, clinical co-ordinator of Discus, a Durham-based drugs in sport support unit which sees more than 400 users in its weekly clinic, they are widely available. "If you really wanted to use steroids, you could easily get them," he says. "People don't seem to have any trouble getting them at regular gyms."

Their personal trainers see to that. In the UK it is legal to use steroids, but not to supply them. Many of the drugs originate either from parts of Europe or Mexico where it is possible to buy them over the counter at pharmacies. They are widely available over the internet – key in the word "steroids" and hundreds of mail order sites appear. Fitness instructors and trainers tend to buy them in bulk to distribute them, almost certainly making a profit.

Catherine believes she became hooked on the psychological effects of steroids within four months of first using them, something which Heron says is not unusual. "Physically they are not addictive, but there's certainly an element of psychological dependency as people get to the point when they think they can't look good or workout without them," he says. "A lot of people complain of withdrawal symptoms such as depression and low mood swings when they come off steroids, even between cycles."

It is five months since Catherine completed her last cycle of steroids. "In a moment of weakness I confessed to my boyfriend who convinced me how stupid I had been," she says. "I really didn't know where to turn to ask for advice as nobody seemed to know much about these things and I didn't feel comfortable about going to my GP. My boyfriend encouraged me to talk to someone at a drugs in sports clinic, which I did.

"They advised me to stop and explained I might feel depressed for a while. On the clenbuterol my weight had hovered around 8 stone – not the lightest I have been, but certainly the best weight for my height. When I came off them I was so down I didn't feel like exercising at all and I went up to 9 and a half stone. I had to work extra hard to get back into shape and am now around 8 stone 12 which I am happy with."

But, says Catherine: "I got very down on myself a couple of months back because I felt I was back where I started. I have had to work so hard to stay in shape and I still don't feel as comfortable with the way I look. I have to diet very hard. It has been hell. You see other people at the gym who are obviously taking something and you just think, God, it's so easy. The temptation will always be there."