The ravages of steroids: the quest for the perfect body was fatal for his brother

Stuck in a vicious circle from which his relatives were trying to get him out, Pierre-Alexandre Charette died at the age of 27 from complications of fulminant hepatitis caused in particular by the consumption of anabolic products.

“It was all over inside of him when he died. The doctor told us that he had the heart of an 80-year-old man,” says his sister Geneviève Charette, still emotional nearly 10 years after her death.

Mr. Charette died in August 2012, a few hours after being admitted to the Saint-Eustache hospital center because he was vomiting blood. When he arrived, he was suffering from severe hepatitis and acute kidney failure.

Less than 24 hours later, after he had experienced episodes of hallucinations and significant agitation, his heart suddenly stopped.

Coroner Jacques Ramsay’s report, released in 2014, states that the man died of hepatitis caused by the use of steroids – which can affect the liver – combined with other illicit substances.

• LISTEN to Jérémy Bernier’s interview with Geneviève Pettersen on QUB radio:

“SICKLY”

Complexed by his physique from a young age, Pierre-Alexandre Charette began training indoors towards the end of his adolescence.

Quickly gaining in confidence, he began to consume anabolics which allowed him to obtain impressive results.

But it was when he started working as a stripper at the Stock Bar in Montreal’s gay neighborhood that it all came crashing down, according to his sister. The one who was his confidante explains that the pressure exerted on him to always be more “cutwas getting louder and louder.

In addition to steroids and other related products, Pierre-Alexandre Charette then plunged into the consumption of other drugs.

“That’s when the vicious circle began, it was unhealthy and it led to his downfall, says his sister. He was dancing to pay for his steroids – which cost half his rent – ​​to look good, to dance.”

It wasn’t until after he died, however, when she emptied out her apartment and found vials of steroids everywhere, that her sister realized the magnitude of the situation.