When you use steroids the liver is the most affected organ of the body. The extent of the liver damage will depend on various factors such as; the type of steroid used, the duration of using the steroid, and the quantity of steroid that has been used. When your liver is being stressed there are certain indicators which will help you know this in advance such as the appearance of SGPT and SGOT in the blood stream. There are various tests used to measure whether the liver is functioning properly and what these tests do is to measure the amounts of these two chemicals in the blood stream.
If these two chemicals are beyond the normal levels then this means that your liver is under a lot of stress. Steroid users usually have higher levels of the two chemicals compared to non users. As soon as you stop steroid use, the levels of these two chemicals return to normal levels. The other reason why the two chemicals are produced is when the liver is injured. As soon as the injury is treated the chemicals return back to there normal levels. The injury as a result of the damaged liver tissue cannot be completely healed. Even though the chemicals return back to normal levels this does not mean that the injury no longer persists.
The extent of the liver damage will be determined by the type of steroid used. For the users who take oral steroid preparation they incur the most extensive liver damage. The reason is because oral steroid preparations are difficult to break down and metabolized by the liver. Inject able steroids are however less difficult to be broken down by the liver and metabolized and hence they cause less damage to the liver.
Most of the liver cells are damaged when the liver is trying to break down the oral steroids. The liver is also hindered from performing its excretory roles effectively. The most extreme liver condition as a result of using steroids is peliosis hepatitis. This is condition where the liver is filled with blood sacks as a result of steroid use. This condition is not dependent on the duration that the user has been using the drugs.
The injectable steroid variety do not lead to many health complications compared to there oral counterpart. The only risk associated with injectable steroids has to do with process of sterilization. If you use unsterilized needles you will introduce bacteria and viruses into your blood stream via the skin. There is wide spread infectious hepatitis among steroid users who do not sterilize there needles properly. The use of injectable steroids can also serve as a gateway to contracting the dreaded HIV virus and other sexually transmitted diseases.
There have been cases also where anabolic steroids have lead to the promotion of liver tumours. This is where they cause the abnormal growth of cells to form noodles. If the steroid user stops using the drugs these tumours might disappear.
