Teenage use of anabolic steroids and the effects
Anabolic steroids are the quickest known way for male athletes to improve their bodies and excel in sports, but not necessarily the safest. The Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol defines anabolic steroids as "the synthetic versions of the naturally occurring male sex hormone testosterone; they are properly called anabolic-androgen steroids because they have both body building (anabolic) and masculinizing (androgenic) effects." Anabolic steroids have been around for many years, dating back to the 1930's, where they were primarily used to treat hypogonadism, a condition in which the testicles do not produce enough testosterone for normal growth, development, and sexual functioning. Shortly after their discovery, people began abusing them. In World War II for example, German troops were given anabolic steroids to improve muscle strength as well as increasing aggressiveness to fight at war (Wadler and Hainline). The first abuse of steroids in sports did not occur until the 1950's, when Russian athletes began taking steroids to increase weight and strength. The Russians use of anabolic steroids led to the development of anabolic steroids in the United States. Steroids have come a long way since then. They now serve an important ro
Some of the effects are reversible, however many of them are not. The reversible effects of steroids in males are shrinkage of the testicles also known as testicular atrophy and reduced sperm production. The irreversible conditions consist of male-pattern baldness, gynecomastia (breast development), priapism (persistent and painful erection), and enlarged prostate. (NIDA). A study conducted by the American Medical Association compared 88 athletes that were steroid users to 68 non-users. They concluded that steroid users displayed more frequent gynecomastia, decreased testicular length, and higher cholesterol than non-users and it also found that 23% of the steroid users suffered from major mood syndromes (Katz). Steroids also cause high blood pressure, stress, and more serious neurological problems. Users of steroids tend to become more aggressive over time and periodically go into uncontrollable "roid rages" (Lovitch). Too frequently teenage male athletes use anabolic steroids to improve their bodies for certain sports, however they completely disregard the obvious short term and long term effects that are associated with the steroids. From past high school experiences I have seen the effects of steroids first hand. All of the male athletes that used steroids only had one reason to take them, which was to get an advantage over their opponents, whether they were playing on the football team, track team, or baseball team, the students that abused steroids were simple to pick out of a crowd. Very often they would have needle marks on
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Approximate Word count = 1046
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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