Anabolic steroids are synthetic coumpounds formulated to be like the male sex hormone testosterone. Many athletes use anabolic steroids male and female alike, such as body builders , weightlifters, baseball players, football players, swimmers, and runners. They do so because they mistakenly believe that they will gain strength and size.
In a male testosterone is released by the leydig cells in the testes.
The testosterone has two main functions androgenic and anabolic. Androgenic is the development of male sex characteristics. Anabolic is the development of muscle tissue.
To treat patients who suffer from a natural lack of testosterone pharmacoligists alter one form of testosterone slightly, increasing th length of …show more content…
Some of these side effects can not be reveresed. Men who use steroids may become more or less interested in sex.
The most severe effect of anabolic steroids is on the liver they call it peliosis hepatis or blood filled cysts in the liver. If the cysts rupture they can cause liver failure which can kill a person. After stoping the use of steroids though these cysts may become smaller and disappear
. Steroids can also cause cancerous tumors in the liver that can also kill they can also disappear
if the drugs are not used anymore. Steroids are also increase the risk of getting gallstones.
Use of steroids also effects your cardiovascular system. There are two kinds of cholesterol in your body high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. HDL is good for the body but LDL is very hazardous to your health. Using steroids lowers the number of HDL in the body in most of the users. The lowering of the amount of HDL in the body puts the person at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure and blood-clotting problems.
Some of the physicians also think that steroids also cause abnormal fat deposits in the body and changes the way the body processes …show more content…
In some users the prostate gland will get larger. Most of the symptoms of the drug use goes away after the drug is not used anymore but some of them stay such as abnormal tissue in the liver, testes, and prostate gland.
There are also serious effects that take place in women as well. besides the masculinizing effects the steroids lower the amount of female hormones for example estrogen and progestrogen which are essential to the function of a womens menstrual cycle. Some women claim to stop menstruating completely.
Steroids are prohibited in any competion wether it be international or national. Even though this is true many top athletes as well as amateur athletes use steroids. Athletes first used drugs in compettition in 1954 when the team physician for the world weight lifting team, John Ziegler, went with the team to the world championships in Vienna, Austria. Ziegler then met the
Russian team doctor that told him that the Russians where using testosterone.
Ziegler brough the news back to the united states and soon every weight lifter was using steroids. Thirty years later it was said that four out of five weight lifters where using