Anabolic-androgenic Steroids

What It Is:  Anabolic-androgenic steroids are man-made substances related to male sex hormones.  “Anabolic” refers to muscle building and “androgenic” refers to increased masculine characteristics.  “Steroids” refers to the class of drugs.  "Cycling" involves taking multiple doses of steroids over a specific period of time, stopping for a period, and starting again.  Slang/street name is roids.  

Type of Drug: Steroid

Method of Use: Taken orally or injected, typically in cycles of weeks or months (referred to as “cycling”), rather than continuously.

What It Does:  Athletes and others abuse anabolic steroids to enhance performance and also to improve physical appearance.

Health Risks: The major side effects from steroids can include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice (yellowish pigmentation of skin, tissues, and body fluids), fluid retention, high blood pressure, increases in LDL (bad cholesterol), and decreases in HDL (good cholesterol). Other side effects include kidney tumors, severe acne, and trembling.  There are some gender-specific effects:

·        Men: Shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts, increased risk for prostate cancer.

·        Women: Growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, enlargement of the clitoris, deepened voice.

·        Adolescents: Growth halted through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes.  This means that adolescents risk remaining short the remainder of their lives if they take steroids before the typical adolescent growth spurt.

In addition, people who inject anabolic steroids run the added risk of contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, which causes serious damage to the liver.  Aggression and other psychotic (a loss of touch with reality that causes a person to believe he or she can do things they cannot really do, for example fly) side effects may also result from abuse of anaboltic steroids.  Depression often is seen when the drugs are stopped and may contribute to dependence on anabolic steroids. 

Legal Status: Steroids are available legally only by prescription, to treat conditions that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone, such as delayed puberty and some types of impotence. 

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