A powerlifting coach who took steroids for almost a decade has warned the drugs take a toll on users' bodies and mental health - but their use will never be stopped. 

Anabolic steroids, a type of performance-enhancing drug (PEDs) related to testosterone, have long been controversial in the fitness world. 

Even the mention of PEDs can be divisive, with figures like Aussie swimmer James Magnussen criticised for participating in the 'Enhanced Games', where the use of drugs was encouraged.

Anabolic steroids are illegal without a medical prescription in Australia, but that hasn't stopped people increasingly using them for means other than better health.

Gus Cooke, 36, trained using anabolic steroids for bodybuilding and powerlifting competitions over 10 years while living in Brisbane - but gave them up in 2023.

'When I initially started taking them, I didn't really want to, but it was a bit of peer pressure,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'The sport kind of created this need to keep up and do what everyone else is doing, and so you are led down a dark path.

'Rather than sending you backwards, like a party drug, it's making you perform better. 

'It's an addictive feeling. Winning is addictive - but then you start to realise the health concerns.'

After his last competition two years ago, Mr Cooke decided it was time for a change and came off steroids before moving to Phuket, Thailand, with his wife. 

But that is when the difficulties really began.

'If you've been on them for a long time, you're going to have neurochemistry changes. (It) starts to impact your mental health,' he said.

'Then, it starts to get paired with muscle loss quite quickly.

'After long-term use, you've got quite a bit of suppression, meaning that your natural production (of testosterone) has slowed down.'

Mr Cooke is now taking TRT, Testosterone Replacement Therapy, which is a legal, medically prescribed drug.

'My maturity and sensibility is stronger than the desire to want to go back on (them) but it doesn't mean you don't miss it,' he said.

'I do miss taking it (but) I never will again. I don't see any need.'

As a coach, he now focuses on mitigating the risks of his clients who do take steroids. 

'I know so much about training and more effective ways of managing performance enhancement to the degree that you can perform better if managed at much lower dosages.

'You can't stop the use. You never will stop the use. There was no point criminalising it because all you do is create an underground subculture of steroid use.

'If I demonise it, (my athletes) will go do it behind doors and, because there is little support, I need to be that support for them.'

While the use of anabolic agents in Australia is illegal without a prescription, there is a trend of increasing non-medical use.

The Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey recorded that non-medical anabolic steroid use almost tripled in the 18 years between 2001 and 2019.

Experts have also raised concerns about the link between social media images and the use of steroids.

Research published in the American Psychological Association in 2024 highlighted the link between social media-influenced body image concerns and behaviors such as anabolic-androgenic steroid use among men.

While the findings were mixed, there were some damning conclusions made. 

'It was clear that appearance-related social media use is related to a more negative body image and greater odds of anabolic-androgenic steroid use in men,' it said.

Mr Cooke said steroid use by social media influencers led to two issues - some people promote it as a 'magic pill', while others do not disclose that their gains are influenced by drugs, leading to followers becoming disappointed. 

'With the people who are more public about it, you've got this high performer who's also, at the same time, using it to make it look "cool",' he said.

'And people see it as that magic pill.'

Meanwhile, Mr Cooke warned that the second group are seeing an idolised image that is 'unrealistic'. 

'You've got people who've been doing this for a really long time showing their results, and people get disheartened because they're not given the context.

'The reality is that anything worth getting in terms of a really chiselled physique isn't attainable without anabolic steroids. 

'It can be done naturally, but doesn't look the same.' 

What is the answer? For Mr Cooke, if steroid-use is inevitable in the industry, it needs to be managed rather than banned.

'There needs to be both infrastructure to keep the market accountable and infrastructure for athletes to feel safe, to get help,' he said.

'There only needs to be basic knowledge out there to reduce so much harm. 

'It's so underground no one knows what to do, and people need access to medical facilities to test if there's contaminants, to test what they're taking and then how to safely use it.'

The proof of the point seems to have been made in Australian world-first research, with Griffith University running a steroid testing trial which was paired with education.

Anonymous users submitted steroids for a composition analysis, including for purity.

According to the results published in May this year, almost a quarter of the substances tested contained unexpected steroids. Over half were incorrectly dosed. 

The trial also revealed more than 80 per cent of participants would change or reduce their use of steroids after being shown the results of the research.

'Criminalisation and stigmatisation have led to these individuals turning to peers, social networks, online forums and drug coaches,' lead researcher Dr Tim Piatkowski said at the time. 

'These strategies are a form of folk pharmacology or ‘bro science’ and can sometimes lack appropriate oversight from medical professionals.

'Information is key in minimising unintended consequences.'