Study Review – Just how pure is the average underground steroid lab?

A recent study paper analysing the underground steroid market in th Czech Republic and Slovakia discovered some concerning results when they analysed samples of underground lab anabolic steroids.

Development of an ultra‐high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of anabolic steroids currently available on the black market in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

“Our results showed that 58.9% AAS products analyzed contained the declared active substances at the declared concentrations, 15.9% contained no active substance, 16.8% were under‐concentrated, 4.5% contained active substances different from those declared on the label, and 3.6% products were over‐concentrated. Alarmingly, the results demonstrated that over 40% of the AAS analyzed failed to meet label claims and therefore may pose serious health risks to consumers.”

Although these results are potentially concerning for anabolic steroid users in Australia, these results do not confirm the same type of results will be found if underground labs from Australia were analysed via this highly sensitive and accurate method of testing. More research needs to be done in Australia to determine such outcomes, but this study paper provides insight into the urgent need for such testing in Australia as well.