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Comment by ddelt | Hacker News Reader

I wish I’d see more discussion and analysis like this over the recreational use of anabolic steroids (read: not for professional sports or contests, but rather for physical appearance).

You want to talk about some shit that gets demonized for no reason? Testosterone replacement therapy is legal, but if you decide that you want to use an extra 100mg, suddenly it’s a criminal offense and you are a bad person. For what? Wanting to have bigger biceps or train harder in the gym? What is the alternative? Drink alcohol which has a measurable death rate per year, or smoke some legal cigarettes and second hand smoke poison countless people?

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There's a good book on this called Better Than Well that discusses the use of medicine for life improvement rather than treating disease. One of the most interesting chapters was on amputees by choice, people who want to cut off a limb to become handicapped. Doctors were left with the painful decision of helping these people achieve this or having them do it on their own in a much more dangerous way. While most would agree the behavior of amputees by choice is in some way pathological, it presents an interesting question about whether people have the right to do to their own bodies what they want and the role of medicine in helping them achieve those aims.

Is there a testimony of someone who went through such surgery? What's the mindset of a person who really needs his/her limbs removed because of such urges?

One possible cause is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integrity_dysphoria but there are related conditions with other names.

I saw an interview years ago on TV and someone was saying it felt like that appendage was not part of their body, it belonged to someone else. It was so mentally uncomfortable they'd rather remove it.

I would never do it, but there's some convincing evidence (the experience of eunuchs) that castration evens out the male/female longevity difference.

This'll get downvoted, but it strikes me how hypocritical it is that you can say you don't feel comfortable in your body they'll put you on test blockers and estrogen replacement to help you look like how you identify, but saying you think you need to look like Adonis is illegal.

Controlled use of anabolic steroids is demonstrably safe and effective.

Who is the “they” you’re referring to? Both groups in your example need therapy, not hormones.

Doctors

slightly OT, but in what situations can anabolic steroids be used recreationally?

For what I'd suggest is 90% or more of their use case, which is using them to improve muscle mass, strength, or appearance, for your typical gym goer or fitness enthusiast.

When you use the term "recreationally", my assumption is that you are asking about how to use these drugs in contrast to using them in an "addicted" state. Since I am very interested in fitness and physical culture, my .02 is that recreational use is anything where you are not endangering your short term health, endangering anyone else's health or well being, you can afford and understand everything you are using and what side effects and ancillaries you would need to take, and you are taking an amount of drugs that are "way less" than what would be necessary to compete at the Mr.Olympia.

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