The Use of Steroids and Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports

I have chosen to write my paper on the topic of steroids and performance enhancing substances that are used today in sports. In this paper I hope to focus on the steroids and performance enhancing drugs and how they have become a problem in sports.

An anabolic steroid is a substance that is related to male sex hormones, known as testosterone. The word “Anabolic” means muscle building. The word “steroids” is just referred to as a drug name or a class of drug. Some athletes have made the decision that they would like to jump higher, run faster, throw harder and hit 100 home runs. Well, this can be accomplished through hard work, dedication, and practice can’t it? Some athletes feel the need to take a shortcut to being the best, so they indulge in “shooting up.” Steroids can be very dangerous and hazardous to your health if you abuse them. Some of these conditions can include, liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, (which is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, tissues, and body fluids), fluid retention, high blood pressure, increase in LDL (bad cholesterol), and at the same time a decrease in you good cholesterol or HDL. One may also get kidney tumors, severe acne, and suffer from trembling. These are some of the side effects that one in general can get from the use of steroids. There are also some other side effects that have to do with gender. In males they can suffer from the shrinking of the testicles and reduced sperm count, which lowers their ability to produce children, baldness, they may start developing breasts, and they are increasing their chances of getting prostate cancer. For women they may start to see some facial hair, some male-pattern of baldness, changes in or loss of menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris and deepened voice. In adolescents they are stunting their growth prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes. This may mean that the adolescent will remain short for the duration of his or her life if they choose to take an Anabolic steroid before the typical adolescent growth spurt. These are some of the physical symptoms that individuals can expect to see while taking anabolic steroids. Some of the psychiatric side effects that may show are the need to be aggressive. Most of the users say that they feel good about themselves while taking steroids but research reports that extreme mood sw...

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... both professional and elite amateur athletics is the misuse of anabolic steroids to increase muscle strength and/or muscle size.” (Pediatrics, 1989). These steroids are available almost at any age. The use of steroids in widespread among professional and college-level athletes, particularly in football players and weight lifters. The International Olympic Committee banned the use of anabolic steroids in 1976; they also placed severe sanctions on violators.

I do not think that steroids should be used in any sport or any situation other than for a certain disease one may have. Cheating in school is not allowed, so why should cheating in athletic performance be allowed. It was said in a journal that, “ our belief that taking ergogenic drugs is another form of cheating, and because competitors who enhance their athletic performance with anabolic steroids put the other competitors in the difficult position of either not taking them and conceding a perceived advantage to the abusing competitor or taking them as well and accepting the risks of untoward side effects. Young athletes should not be placed in the situation of having to make such a choice.” (Pediatrics, 1989).