'Steroids are fantastic, I don't even mind the side effects': Bodybuilder can't live without anabolics despite suffering a cyst the size of a tennis ball and losing his job thanks to 'roid rage'

Oli Smith claims Class C drugs help him have sex until he 'passes out'

23-year-old carpet fitter can bench-press 5st more than body weight

Wants to 'lift heavy weights, eat food and be a wild animal' on steroids

They're illegal to possess with intent to supply, but legal for personal use

A 23-year-old bodybuiler who spends £400 a month on anabolic steroids has revealed how he cannot live without them - despite suffering a cyst bigger than a tennis ball.

Carpet fitter Oli Smith, of Halesowen, West Midlands, claims the potentially-deadly steroids help him have sex until he ‘passes out’, and he can bench-press almost 5st more than his body weight.

He said that he wants to ‘lift heavy weights, have sex, eat food and be a wild animal’ while on the steroids, which are illegal to possess with intent to supply - but legal to own for personal use.

Workout: Carpet fitter Oli Smith, of Halesowen, West Midlands, claims the potentially-deadly steroids help him have sex until he 'passes out', and he can bench-press almost five stone more than his body weight Dangerous: He said that he wants to 'lift heavy weights, have sex, eat food and be a wild animal' while on the steroids, which are illegal to possess with intent to supply - but legal to own for personal use

Mr Smith told The Sun: ‘Apart from the side-effects you feel fantastic. In a club you feel like the biggest, strongest, best-looking, most powerful man in the world.’

But he added that he developed painful hard lumps in his bottom after injecting it with the drugs twice a week, and grew a ‘cyst that was bigger than a tennis ball’ when injecting his shoulder.

Doctors told Mr Smith to get the cyst removed - which would have meant cutting away part of the muscle - but instead he drew out the liquid himself with a syringe, reported the newspaper.

He also developed hard tissue in his breasts, and was told by medics that he needed an operation for that too. But he got hold of tamoxifen, which is used to treat breast cancer, and ‘that sorted it out’.

Change Mr Smith, 23, is pictured (left) before he embarked on using steroids, and at the gym now (right)

Painful: Mr Smith said he developed hard lumps in his bottom after injecting it with the drugs twice a week, and grew a 'cyst that was bigger than a tennis ball' when injecting his shoulder

He was not discouraged from steroids despite the side-effects, and still refuses to stop taking them.



Mr Smith has been using steroids since he was 17 - shortly after starting at the gym when he left school at 16 - and doubled his weight from 7st to 14st in three years, reported The Sun.

'Apart from the side-effects you feel fantastic. In a club you feel like the biggest, strongest, best-looking, most powerful man in the world' Oli Smith

While steroids can enhance performance by increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat, they can also lead to lower sperm count, breast development and overgrowth of the forehead.

And Mr Smith told The Sun: ‘Aggression is one of the main problems. I lost my first job because I pushed over my team leader. I wasn't at all aware of how it happened. I had a blackout.’

Some 60,000 people in Britain aged between 16 and 59 are said by medical guidance body the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to have used steroids over the past year.

Concerns: While steroids can enhance performance by increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat, they can also lead to lower sperm count, breast development and overgrowth of the forehead

Earlier this month an inquest in Bradford heard how an obsessive bodybuilder who suffered two heart attacks and three strokes because of his massive intake of anabolic steroids died aged just 20.

INFERTILITY, SEVERE ACNE AND CANCER: THE RISKS OF STEROIDS

Anabolic steroids are similar to the male hormone testosterone. They can improve endurance and stimulate muscle growth.

They can help athletes train for longer and some men take them to look more 'manly', according to the drug advice website Frank.

The steroids are available as tablets - which cost around £20 for 100 - or as a liquid for injection.

But some of the side-effects in men include reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, breast development, severe acne and increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

According to NHS Choices, the side-effects in women include facial hair growth, loss of breasts, a deepened voice, problems with periods and hair loss.

The steroids are Class C drugs to be sold only by pharmacists with a doctor's prescription.

It is legal to possess or import them for personal use - but possession or importing with intent to supply is illegal, and punishable by up to 14 years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Fitness fanatic Oli Cooney had been told by doctors when he was 18 that he was putting his life at risk if he did not limit his weightlifting but he refused to listen - and told family he was ‘invincible’.

Prices vary, but anabolic steroids cost about £20 for 100 tablets - and are also available in liquid form, the drug advice website Frank says.



The abuse of steroids was highlighted in 2010 when relatives of Raoul Moat said the 37-year-old ex-nightclub bouncer, who went on a shooting spree in Northumberland, was addicted to the muscle-building drugs and prone to 'unpredictable' eruptions of anger.

Increased aggression and violent episodes among anabolic steroid users have been documented across the world since the 1970s by researchers examining what is sometimes labelled 'roid rage'.

Experts have also highlighted how a disturbing number of bodybuilders have been involved in murders compared with other sportsmen.

In 1998, an article in the US magazine Sports Illustrated highlighted the large number of bodybuilders jailed for killings compared with other athletes.