More Youngsters Turning To Steroids On Merseyside

A Merseyside Doctor has exclusively told Radio City News that he's seeing a rise in young men on Merseyside risking their lives using anabolic steroids.

"I think young men are probably more vain now than they were 20 years ago"

We've been investigating steroid use in the region, as nationally the number of under-25s taking them has gone up by around 19,000 in the last year.

Dr Kieran Grey, a GP on the Wirral said:

"When I was working in more deprived areas it was more men in their late 20s and early 30s possibly trying to hang on to a youthful physique, now though it seems to be people under 20.

"I think young men are probably more vain now than they were 20 years ago and happier to do things to alter their physique and their appearance.

"I see a stacked young lad coming in, talking about his mental health, the first question I'll usually ask is are you using steroids? People are very open about it - it seems very normalised.

"I've had people in with relationship problems. When you touch on it, there's qute a lot of anger there or quite a bit of depression. It's very hard to treat unless you get to the cause and if the cause is that you're injecting something that triggers all of these - without removing that you're not going to fix it"

All this week on Radio City News we're investigating steroid use on Merseyside. You can hear a special documentary at 11.30 on Friday.

• Need for Needles