Title: Steroids and their effects

Anabolic steroids are powerful compounds that bear direct relation to the male sex hormone known as testosterone. Within the legal framework, steroids are applied to treat some kinds of anaemia. However, athletes, long-distance runners, body builders, cyclists etc widely use steroids to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals and such use of steroids is deemed illegal. On market, steroids are available in liquid form or tablets. Anabolic steroids are injected or taken orally by athletes in the course of few weeks or even months prior to competitions. While absorbed in combination, the effectiveness of steroids is maximized, whereas adverse affects are reduced. This process is referred to as stacking.

The use of anabolic-androgenic steroids adversely affects the adolescent physical transformation providing them with a greater sense of self-achievement. Regrettably, many adolescents know no limit regarding the steroid use. For instance, the metamorphoses of human muscle affected by the steroids also impact other aspects of the body, and therefore steroids are detrimental to the adolescent psychological condition, including such psychiatric consequences as depression, addiction, rage, self and public psychosis etc.

Most steroids cause extraordinary harsh side effects and permanent damage to the human body, while steroid abuse results in lifetime problems. However, side effects of anabolic steroids are yet to be investigated from purely medical side. There is few data, for example, regarding the hazardous effects of steroids on human health condition. For instance, it is questionable to what extent steroids masculinise females, stunt the height of growing adolescents, or change sex characteristics of males. Furthermore, anabolic steroids cause kidney failure, premature heart attacks, liver tumours, strokes, and serious psychiatric problems. Finally, considering that the drugs are often injected, users often risk to contract or transmit hepatitis B or HIV (Roberts, 2009).

In addition to the abovementioned effects, anabolic steroids cause increases lean muscle mass, strength, and overall physical capacity to train harder and longer. At that, most reports state that health hazards caused by short-term steroid effects are reversible. Anabolic steroids adversely affect jaundice, liver tumours, high blood pressure, and fluid retention. Regarding males, steroids shrink the testicles, cause infertility, development of breasts, and baldness, as well as reduce sperm count. Regarding females, steroids cause the growth of facial hair, deepened voice, and changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle. Regarding the adolescents, they halt their growth through accelerated puberty changes and premature skeletal maturation. Eventually, there are many steroid takers that suffer from extreme irritability, paranoid jealousy, impaired judgment resulting from invincibility, and delusions. Nonetheless, there is little evidence so far on the long-term effects of steroids (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2009).

Apparently, steroids and related supplements present a serious challenge on the contemporary agenda. Mostly, steroids remain illegal save as medical treatment, and therefore the majority of instances of their usage are easy to spot. In comparison, the use of supplements presents a greater danger especially regarding the adolescents due to their vast accessibility on market and little knowledge about their hazardous ingredients. To this end, it is evident that the use of steroids is both dangerous and impractical. In particular unsupervised steroid use presents a great problem, including specific physiological dangers. Therefore, the unsupervised steroid use should be substituted by relevant alternative to such practice that would captivate young minds and motivate their athletic endurance through more constructive approaches.

Works Cited

National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2009, “Steroids”, http://www.nida.nih.gov/

Roberts, A. 2009, “Side Effects of Steroids”, http://www.steroid.com/side.php