Steroid Usage: Alarming Prevalence and Impact on Athletes

“[Thirty percent] of college and professional athletes have used or currently use steroids, as do 10-20% of high school athletes” (“Anabolic Steroids”). These numbers are alarming, but there are two main reasons why this is occuring: people tend to belief steroids will improve their appearances, and athletes believe their athletic abilities will increase. However, most are not aware of the effects steroid use has on the body. Steroid use has dramatic effects on the user’s body and mind in many different ways. Steroids are hormone replacements that affect the user’s body in various forms. There are three ways they are consumed: pills, creams, and injectable liquids (“Steroids”). There are countless amounts of steroids being used around the

Men who use steroids for long periods of time experience the following: breast development, liver diseases, and even liver cancer (“Anabolic Steroids”). The effects on women are different than those of men. Women experience deepening voices.(“Anabolic Steroids”). Short term use of steroids is much different, though. Heart damage, problems with urination, reduced sperm count, and impotence are a few of the symptoms men experience with short term steroid use. Women who use steroids for a short period of time experience excessive hair growth all over their body and their breasts shrink in size (“Anabolic Steroids”). Both men and women experience the same types of emotions, though. Aggression, violence, irritability, and depression are a few of the emotions out of many one would experience (“Anabolic Steroid Abuse”). Their emotions can switch in the matter of seconds and they can sometimes be dangerous to be around, especially if they start to experience “roid

There are two ways people can be tested: urine and blood samples that will then be sent to a lab (“Olympic Games”). If the person being tested gets her or his positive results back there will be many consequences to follow. In a public high school, if one tests positive for steroid use he or she experiences the following consequences: suspension from activities for eight weeks, they must receive counseling, parents have to be contacted, and then they have to test negative on all other random drug tests given. In a private high school, if one tests positive for steroid use he or she experiences the following: meeting with parents and school administration, take a second drug test, and if they test positive on that one as well, they get taken out of the school and it goes on their record (Stinchcomb). Of course, people have come up with ways to try and trick the drug tests, and sometimes it does work. There are three ways that people try to trick the tests: tampering, which means people put household products in their urine to try to make it harder to detect the steroids, water loading, which is drinking tons and tons of water to water down the drugs and try to flush them out of their system, and finally, popping vitamins, which flushes out the toxins in their bodies