The Effects Of Anabolic Steroids

When speaking on the battle against drugs, most people think towards the more notorious and well-known substances like heroin, cocaine, and even tobacco, but little mention is given to prescription drugs like anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are artificial drugs that coincide with male sex hormones like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone.1 After a few years of study in the early 1900s it became apparent that these steroids promote the growth of muscle and develop male sexual characteristics in men and women. The different types of testosterone are formed in the testes whereas the hormone is created mostly in the ovaries and adrenal glands of women. Anabolic Steroids were originally made to help men suffering from impotence and other male
sexual illnesses. Once the drug’s use became correlated to muscle growth, its use became more widespread by people young and old. The rapid use of anabolic steroids outpaced the research done to analyze its long term effects and consequences. This led to multitudes of new anabolic steroid users being unaware of the potential dangers they face by using the drug. In recent studies, it has been shown that prolonged off-label use of anabolic steroids can attribute to a wide range of negative health effects. Because of this, it is imperative that the prescription and use of anabolic steroids is diminished to allow for further study of its negative effects.
The abuse and misuse of anabolic steroids has been shown to coincide it a wide array of negative health effects.
Some are more burdensome than they are harmful, like acne and breast development in men. Meanwhile the more dangerous side effects, like heart disease and liver cancer, are rare but need to be handled with vigilance.1 “Roid rage” is also a common cause when it comes to the use of anabolic steroids. This is shown in acts of uncontrollable violence and aggressiveness from the user. The effects mentioned before can be prevented and even reversed once the person using the drug stops taking them, but other effects like voice deepening in females, are permanent.2 Other irreversible effects of using anabolic steroids include male pattern baldness and heart damage.2 The majority of these effects were only recently discovered, so the severity of the drug’s use can only be
speculated. An even lesser known aspect of anabolic steroid abuse are the psychiatric effects, which can be loosely correlated to different mood and dependence syndromes.3 The prevalence of these mental disorders caused by the abuse of anabolic steroids have yet to be truly studied and understood. Many people who abused and became addicted to the drug said that they suffered from mood swings ranging from anger and rage to extreme depression, even weeks to months after they stopped using the drug. Users also said that these mood swings were often times met with headaches, migraines, and on rare occasions hunger pangs.2 Those who became addicted to anabolic steroids have a different addiction then someone who is addicted to alcohol or tobacco. Using anabolic steroids doesn’t cause a feeling of euphoria, also known as a “high”, in the user. Instead, those who become addicted to this drug are more so addicted to the results of using the drug, or hope to keep up their physical form. Some people who were addicted to anabolic steroids stated that they only kept using the drug to prevent themselves from going through withdrawal, which has been shown to be similar to withdrawal of antidepressants.1 Due to the recent upswing in use of anabolic steroids, it is important that more research is done into the various effects that abusing the drug can have on people. The majority of people who abuse the drug have yet to reach middle age, so the long term physical and mental effects of using anabolic steroids have yet to show themselves. This is why it is imperative that the use of these drugs is limited and monitored before even more dangerous and severe effects of abuse are discovered. Sources show that long-term use of abnormally large doses of anabolic steroids may have adverse effects on a number of organ systems, leading to both medical and psychological illnesses.1 More importantly, evidence suggests that some of these may continue long after a user’s last exposure to anabolic steroids.3 Relying on pharmaceutical companies to do more research on the drugs they make and sell has proven to be an unreliable method of managing their use and would also require the companies to have more readily available information on the products. The quick wave of prospective users was enough to satisfy the companies who initially sold and created the artificial testosterone. To have any real effect on their widespread use, both legal and otherwise, there would need to be a joint effort from the federal government to make and sell them to have more readily available information on the products. If anabolic steroids were properly studied and analyzed before being released and sold to the public, prospective users would be more informed on the decision to take the drugs. The initial appeal of steroids is largely what makes them so potentially dangerous. What first seems as a quick and easy method to build muscle, isn’t revealed to be a possibly harmful drug until it is coursing through the body. The ability to gain strength that would be almost unattainable otherwise is more than enough to entice people into using the drug. Add to that the little known side effects of the abuse of these drugs and you’re left with hundreds if not thousands of people unaware of the danger that they are putting themselves in. In some reports from former anabolic steroid users, people are seldom aware of the possible side effects of using the drug, and even when they are, they believe they are capable of managing the side effects for and use the drug anyway. The discovery and possible uses for anabolic steroids are phenomenal to be sure, but allowing consumers to use them without having done extensive studies on it is unsafe and unfair to those who use the drug.
The drug’s use as an agent to help men suffering from impotence was researched and studied long before the drug ever reached the shelves of stores. What people didn’t realize at the time was the drug’s astounding ability to rapidly grow muscle fibers in the body. By the time this growth became associated with taking anabolic steroids, users were already beginning to feel the side effects of its use. To bring the harm done by steroids to an end, it will take more than just letting people know of the potential dangers. Steps will have to be taken to get that message across to the youth who are most inclined to use the anabolic steroids. In 1990, the possession and use of these drugs made a felony across the United states, along with the likes of heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. This helped make acquiring anabolic steroids more difficult for the average user, meanwhile others use illicit means to get the drug. Different organizations such as the Taylor Hooton Foundation are in place solely to educate young athletes on the dangers of using anabolic steroids and to dissuade them from doing so. The willingness of young people to look past the negative side effects of anabolic steroids can mostly be attributed to their lack of education on the matter. This however, can be
easily combatted by, such as, providing young athletes with mandatory sessions informing them on all the dangers of using anabolic steroids. In a perfect world, the use of anabolic steroids would be banned until there was more concrete evidence of their detriment to those who abuse them. While that is unlikely, something must be done about their current influence in society. The government’s steps to prohibiting their use, while having some effect, won’t prevent people from getting them illegally and using them off-label. The least we could do is to dissuade those who are most impressionable(young athletes) and prevent them from harming themselves by taking the drug. Against the countless reasons to avoid using anabolic steroids off-label, there are multiple arguments that support its use. One of those arguments is that using the drug should ultimately be up to the user. While this may be true, allowing people to use the drug when its long-term effects haven’t been extensively studied would be reprehensible. Another common idea is that the side effects of the drug should be disregarded due to their rarity, but this simply isn’t true. While the more severe cases only occur in those who abuse anabolic steroids for a prolonged period of time, the other side effects occur far more often among abusers. The reasons not to take the drug far outweigh the reasons supporting its use. Countless people have reported various negative side effects from using anabolic steroids, including physical symptoms such as heart disorders and mental illnesses such as depression and mood swings. This became such a widespread issue due to multiple things, those being a lack of research done on the drugs themselves and a lack of information given to prospective consumers. While completely prohibiting the drug may prove difficult, restricting its use to further study and analyze its capabilities would be more than beneficial.