Steroids are types of hormones which regulate a certain function of the body. There are steroids which can be found in pure form in nature, but the most used ones are the medically developed ones. Steroids are mostly used by body builders, athletes, and people with active occupations.

Some forms of steroids are used the health industry as surgery aids, pain relievers or to relieve swelling around a tumor. A lot of big name sports personalities have been linked to the use of steroids. Why they are banned from any professional sport is that misuse of steroids can lead to a load of side effects, which can cause rare diseases and even death.

The metabolism is composed of two parts: anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the process through which tissue is built, and catabolism is the process through which tissue is broken down, energy being released. Steroids force the body to anabolize more to improve tissue growth.

Every male secretes a hormone called testosterone which is responsible for the physical and sexual development during puberty and also determines a men's libido (sexual desire) and aggressivity. Steroids enhance the androgenic effects (masculine characteristics) and cause them to develop faster. Because of this, a lot of men have used steroids to boost their penis size and erection.

Most steroids permanently damage the organs and other parts of the body. The penis is one of the most susceptible to the damage because anabolic-like hormones are also produced by the testicles. The use of steroids can cause temporary erection problems or permanent impotence.

On the other hand, statistical studies show that there is no direct linkage to penis shrinkage and steroids. Also, if an individual will turn to penis enlargement methods (yes, for once and for all, penis enlargement is possible) the steroids may cause the penis to stay shrunk. This is because, as I said before, steroids may effect erection, which is responsible for irrigating the penis with blood and, it's during erection when the actual penis growth process happens, if this process has been stimulated previously.

In conclusion, steroids don't shrink your penis, but it may prevent it from getting bigger. But wait, that's not all. Steroids can shrink the sizes of the testes. This occurs because the body detects that there is a hormonal imbalance and tries to control this by decreasing the size of testes.

Also a common misconception - an urban myth basically - is that the penis is muscle. This is false. The penis is made out of three columns of spongy tissue; two corpora cavernosa lie next to each other on the dorsal side and one corpus spongiosum lies between them on the ventral side. Thus, the penis cannot be enlarged as you would expect to enlarge a muscle and can only be enlarged by applying pressure to the tissues described above. The enlargement occurs because the cavities of the spongy areas are stretched to allow more blood to flow through them.