Do steroids work?

Short answer: yes, but they make you feel funny. For the longer version, check out this fascinating article by Stuart Stevens, a writer for Outside Magazine.

Stevens is an avid amateur bike rider who wanted to see for himself the effects of various banned substances. So, he found a doctor who would prescribe him everything from HGH to EPO to anabolic steroids. After using these and other drugs in his training regimen, he gained 12 pounds while dropping his body-fat: pure muscle, in other words. He found it easier to make it up the hills but most of all, his body seemed to recover instantaneously. The day after a 200 mile ride, he felt fresh and ready to go again.

Stevens didn't seem to suffer any of the terrible side effects common to steroids--perhaps because he used them cautiously under the care of a doctor--yet he was never able to shake the feeling that there was something unnatural and wrong about his body. For many (most?) professional athletes, it seems that isn't much of a deterrent these days.