what are the medical uses of anabolic steroids

Factual Questions
1

the use in sports to increase muscle strength and size is well known. and since they are schedule 3 I assume they don’t get used in medicine much. so what are the legit and off label medical uses for these drugs?

I know they are prescribed for low t for older men. And they may work as a male birth control drug in slightly higher doses (but there is evidence that testosterone replacement doesn’t work as well as female birth control).

how often are they used in cancer and hiv patients to prevent and reverse muscle wasting? are they used in the elderly with mobility issues and lack of muscle mass? what about diseases like muscular dystrophy?

I’ve heard some anabolic steroids speed up the process of muscle healing, are they used in people with serious burns or severe muscle tears?

are there other uses or is that about it?

what benefits and drawbacks would a myostatin inhibitor have over anabolic steroids?

2

The primary medical use for testosterone-like medications is to correct naturally occurring deficiency states.

What is typically at issue is whether or not a “deficiency state” exists.

For example, as we age our testosterone diminishes. Is that a “deficiency state” or is it normal?

There are, of course, deficiency states in the young for a variety of reasons.

3

Oxandrolone, which is the only anabolic steroid approved for use by the FDA, is used to rebuild tissue lost with burn patients, HIV/AIDS wasting, decubitus ulcers and other wound healing purposes.