Smoking vs Steroids

[Hypertrophy]

Almost anyone who is in slightly above average shape  will get asked if they use steroids. People who are into the scene are probably more likely to make the accusation.

Steroids don't just affect appearance, they affect performance, too and there is probably more stigma regarding that.

The point isn't whether or not you can keep it a secret but the fact that most who use feel compelled to do so in the first place.

Yes- PEDs in general have a huge stigma these days. It seems though that the focus has shifted more to things like EPO and blood doping than steroids. At least in individual  sports  like cycling, running and nordic skiing.

[BB]

Smoking, far more. You almost never see cigarettes in film, when just a few decades ago, they were everywhere in them. I can't think of any place, barring a sidewalk, where smoking is accepted. Even then, it's just barely. On dating sites, it's a huge deal breaker. People hate the smells of smoke on clothes, in cars, etc.... Smokers and tobacco companies are seen as public health drains.

Outside of soccer moms and sportswriters, steroids are a problem that's usually met with snickers. And they are totally acceptable when wrapped in the veil of "HRT", and lightly used.

.

Meanwhile steroid use has been stable or seen modest growth in the last few decades -

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3961570/ .

[fredrollon]

Yes just ask Ken Wheeler who just lost a leg.

  This chap?

Lifting weights in the gym is “extremely healthy for you,” said Kenneth Wheeler, a former elite bodybuilder known as Flex.
“But if you want to be a bodybuilder and compete at the highest level, it has nothing to do with health.”
A relatively rare form of kidney disease forced Wheeler to retire in 2003 at age 37, and he needed a kidney transplant later that year.


I like this quote from the same NY Times article, "Bodybuilders see Kidney Damage with Steroids" , from 2009:

The main source of information for bodybuilders is word of mouth and experimentation, Jerry Brainum said.
“These guys have no guidance, they talk among themselves, and they don’t even tell the truth to each other,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/sports/10steroids.html

[D.O.A.]

Do you think one has more of a social stigma than the other?

just do both!

[oldtimer1]

I live near the beach and boardwalk. Every time a juiced bodybuilder walks down the boardwalk I hear the snickers of steroids while laughing. People know the formerly hidden secret.  People just don't give a guy with a juiced amazing body credit. It's amazing all these actors that juice for a role then when promoting the movie even in clothes you can tell they are a shell of the image on the screen.