Man's secret use of synthetic testosterone for cows nearly destroyed his heart
But through it all, he never revealed a key detail behind his ailments: He was taking powerful, illicit synthetic testosterone derivatives (aka anabolic-androgenic steroids, or AAS).
Key points
- He landed in the hospital over and over again, needed life support at one point, spent years going to specialists, and underwent a barrage of tests along the way.
- Left in the dark, his doctors had to puzzle this out on their own.
- They also offer a warning: These cases will only become more common, and clinicians need to know what they look like.
For 11 years, a Massachusetts man had an alarming array of health problems, most notably that his heart kept failing.
One of the drugs he took was approved only for use in animals; it's primarily used to beef up cows.
Additional details
- In a case report in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, they explain how they did it.
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