.

Anabolic Steroids: Informing and Erasing the

Stigma

Matthew Earomirski
3/8/17

Independent Research G/T

Dr. Melissa Kiehl
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A majority of the studies performed on steroid abuse indicate males are twice as likely to

abuse steroids as females. The topic of anabolic steroids is a very controversial topic that is a

constant hot debate if ever brought up. There is a definite difference between men and women

when it comes to certain genders taking anabolic steroids, from the side effects that it has to the

amount of use. In the physical fitness industry steroids are a very debated topic where without a

doubt, more active men use more steroids than active women out of college. This topic is very

commonly misunderstood by most people in the world, especially the youth that are using these

drugs. There are also a various amounts of stigmas that are based around the use of anabolic

steroids, but are not typically true to a certain extent. Unfortunately, this is due to the fact that

people are not properly educated about steroids and sometimes the parents are not doing their

duties to make sure their child is well informed about the world around them. This would be

especially important for parent of teen athletes or children that have body image issues. This

paper will clarify what steroids actually are, how they affect your body both physically and

mentally, show you the differences between men and women when using anabolic steroids, and

will give scientific and personal viewpoints on the use of steroids.

Anabolic steroids have been around for a long time, even back to the time of the

gladiators. The gladiators used testosterone to increase the muscle mass and decrease the time

that it took to get bigger. The idea of steroids came from wanting to get more testosterone in the

body, so that they would be able to get stronger for competition. The would use this idea when

eating and would make sure that we would be able to get the advantage when battling their

opponents. As time went on, the idea grew closer to what we see in todays society people

wanting an athletic advantage over their opponent and to be better than would be without using

anabolic steroids. As time passed,, steroids started to enter places like the gym or even in
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professional sports. As a result of how much anabolic steroids became a part of some peoples

lives, there are a lot of debates over steroids in general. Most of the conversations deal with the

situation of whether or not taking anabolic steroids is morally or ethically accepted. This is a

very hot debate that is only growing with time. . The idea of anabolic steroids has spread over

many different generations and is now moving into various ages. Steroids have come a long way

around, but the issue could be that these types of drugs are not being properly taught to society or

people are not being safe when using them. .

The topic of anabolic steroids is a very big one that many people dont fully understand..

This could cause many issues to the people that want to use them and the people that are trying

to look into the drug for their life. The drugs were developed to emphasize the muscle-building

properties of the hormones, while reducing the masculinizing effects.The adverse effects of

improper and excessive steroid use include damage to the heart, liver, and kidneys (Gale

Student Resources in Context, Steroids). Steroids were originally made to help people build

muscle faster than normal, but had various negative effects that became very present with their

use. When taught about steroids, many people are not given proper information to make a

realistic judgement on whether to use them, and how to do so safely. .

Steroids have both positive and negative effects on the body. Originally, they were

developed to treat osteoporosis, cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and other

similar afflictions(World of Health, Anabolic Steroids). This illustrates the fact that there are

without a doubt, positive sides of people having to take anabolic steroids. People may misuse

this drug, but some of the effects of steroids have very good benefits to people with certain

situations. For example, people with low amounts of testosterone could use doctor prescribed

steroids to boost the amount of that hormone in their body. This is just one example of many
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reasons that people could use anabolic steroids to help them live their daily life to the best they

can. Anabolic steroids also have many different effects on the shape of the body. . Testosterone

gives you a more full and round looking muscles and Deca gives you an added level of thickness

to your physique(Youtube.com, The Aesthetic Effects of Popular Steroids). Deca and

testosterone are parts of anabolic steroids that can act in different ways while in your body to

help you build muscle faster or to recover at a faster rate. These parts of anabolic steroids are just

two of a large group of ingredients that are involved in the use of steroids. The specific parts of

steroids act in different ways to affect the body both for the positive and the negative. People

could get more of a bigger look to their body or get a higher level of thickness to their growing

muscles. This could also cause peoples muscles to grow in more of a deformed shape, which

would not be good for the body and the way that people would like to look as the end result.

Overall, steroids have both positive and negative effects that come along with taking them, but

people being more educated about them would help the situation in general.

When it comes to using anabolic steroids, there is no doubt that it is used by all genders

for many different reasons. There are many similarities and differences that men and women

both undergo while they are using these types of drugs. Sometimes people just believe that only

men would like to have this this type of body and would like to have the bulky muscle look, but

there are women out there that would love to achieve that goal as well. Women have a lot of

similar symptoms compared to men using steroids, but they also have many other side effects

that do not occur within men. More frequently, a woman on steroids suffers from mood swings

with steroids withdraw symptoms that include depression, fear, apathy, increased tendency for a

cry, very forgetful, lack of concentration loss of appetite and anxiety, affecting all aspects of her

life including job, family, and relationships.(Gale Virtual Library, The Effects of Steroids on
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Women Athletes). This displays just some of the symptoms that women could go through

during or after their use of anabolic steroids. These are only the psychological symptoms that

women do through on top of all the various effects that that would have to endure while using. It

can be a very harsh process that people using steroids would have to be able to stick it out

through all the symptoms. Most of society would believe that people that use steroids just

automatically get big and look good, but they never know what is going on inside the person.

This could either be organs that are being damaged or the mental state at which they are at, but

either way most people will never be able to see this side of steroids. This is why people can

never just assume that people are doing fine and that they are just working out because you dont

know how they are doing as a whole.

Men also go through many of these symptoms, but also have a lot of other symptoms

that come along with the process of taking anabolic steroids.Men may see an increased amount

of acne all over the body, a symptom where the chest grows in a little more to look like breasts,

and the shrinking of the testicles up to half the amount that they were before. (Youtube.com,

National Geographic | Benefits and Side Effects of Steroid Use 2015). These are the more

physical effects that are caused by steroids compared to the earlier statement made about the

psychological effects that women undergo when they use steroids. Both men and women may

deal with some of these physical conditions besides the one about the male chest growing

abnormally and the shrinking of the male testicles. Women would not be able to go through these

types of changes, but they do go through a large amount of effects that men have to go through

as well. One of the effects of steroids in men is the condition where the male chest grows

abnormally to look more like breasts, which is called gynecomastia. This symptom is caused by

the increase in estrogen, the female hormone in the body, which causes breast tissue to grow in
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the chest. Steroids cause all your hormones to be increased, unfortunately that also means the

small amount of estrogen in your body to higher levels. There is a drug called estrogen blockers,

which would counter most of this effect, but might not fully work and it costs a good amount of

money. Also men would go through the shrinking of the testicles from either thirty-three percent

to half the size they were originally. This is a very awful statistic, especially if the man is

attempting to have a child during their use of steroids, there might be some problems that come

along with doing that. After the user stops taking the drug, the testicles typically go back to their

normal size, but there may be problems that arise even after stopping. These are just some effects

that men go through while using steroids, which would make some people question why anyone

would use steroids in general. The thing is that there are a lot of positive effects that people can

obtain with the taking steroids, but they have to make sure that they use the drug safely and with

the best help that they can find.

Due to the various stigmas that come along with people using steroids, typically society

believes that people using steroids are just people that would like to look better and think that

they are better than others. Earlier in the paper, both men and women have been discussed

separately, but they both have a lot of psychological issues that are similar for both genders.

Women psychological problems have been discussed before, but these symptoms are going

further into this problem along with combing the issues for both genders. Some negative

physiological effects are depression, roid rage, and mood swings. Some positive physiological

effects are an increase in confidence, energy, and motivation. (Youtube.com, The Potential

Positive and Negative Psychological Effects of Anabolic Steroids). Some of these effects are

seen as myths, but a lot of them are actually real symptoms that people have to endure while

taking steroids. Roid rage is a symptom of people getting an increased amount of anger without
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any particular trigger. Mood swings are slightly different because this symptom is the quick

switching of a persons emotions from high energy or happy to lower energy or sad. There are

not only negative psychological effects that people come across when using anabolic steroids.

The positive like increased confidence, energy, and motivation are very good for the person that

is taking steroids. This may be very intriguing to the user of the drug and would be a good

feeling for people that may need this in their life. This shows that there are both positive and

negative effects within both gender for people that are constant users of anabolic steroids.

There are a various amount of scientific and personal viewpoints that are will be shared

throughout the rest of this article. There are always two sides to a story and that statement is very

true when it comes to talking about anabolic steroids. People without a doubt are for and against

using anabolic steroids when it comes to either personal use or for competition. Society will

typically be not so harsh to people that would like to use it just to make them look better and will

be less lenient for people that use it to cheat for competitions. There are a good amount of stars

or people in the limelight that are acting like they are doing the right thing or using steroids

correctly, which would give children a false hope for their future. " But an increasing percentage

are, and the lucrative and appealing trail of shattered records, athletic scholarships, high salaries

and notoriety is being blazed to an unanticipated and dangerous destination by high-profile

players and sports heroes. They're drawing legions of unsuspecting and impressionable youth

down the dusty, desolate, dead-end trail. (Steroids Are Harmful). Children everywhere are

looking up to or admiring these types of people, just to figure out that all their hard work was

done through steroids. This is giving too many children the idea that they can do these types of

things like, breaking records, being famous, or making a good amount of money, without

knowing what most of the athletes are really doing behind the scenes. Many people are very
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devastated when they figure out that the stars that they having been in awe about for years crash

in front of their eyes. It is a very heartbreaking time to see people that have been a huge part of

your life just fall down and take down some of the dreams that you have been given by those

stars. Especially children that see these people as heroes would be horrific to find out that your

dreams may not be able to come true because they are not taking the same drugs that their

mentor used.

Anabolic steroids are not only the talk about their use in sports or just famous people in

general, but also there are many scientific viewpoints on how steroids would react with your

body. From the case reports, the incidence of life-threatening effects appears to be low, but

serious adverse effects may be underrecognized or underreported, especially since they may

occur many years later. (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Performance-Enhancing Drugs Are

Harmful to Health). These are the thoughts of many individuals about their feelings on people

using anabolic steroids because they feel that it causes too many problems for the users. This is

not the ideals held by all people, but it seems to be what majority of people believe about people

taking anabolic steroids. It seems to be that most cases that are relating to anabolic steroids dont

end with a life-threatening case, but they without a doubt can. There are a lot of adverse effects

that can take place during the use of steroids or after the cycle has ended for the person done

using the drug. Cycling is a term that is used by people that take anabolic steroids which is going

on and off of steroids in order to not harm the user and to make sure it affects their body in the

best way that it can. Most people will not be able to tell how their body is being being affected

during the course of their steroid use because most of the signs are not easy to see or can go

unrecognizable. This can cause many problems in the long run because some of these symptoms
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need to be treated right away, but you may not be able to get it treated if you dont even know

what is going on with your body.

Many users of anabolic steroids will react differently with the drug because no one's body

is the same as someone elses, so it is bound to react in different ways. Some people may start off

looking good and like how everything is going, but soon they decline happens and causes even

more problems. After an initial high and feelings of power and strength, the young man started

losing hair and fell into depression. Losing over fifty pounds in the aftermath of his drug

experiment, he experienced severe health problems. (Dave Kindred, What Steroids Did to

Me). Many people feel that they are doing it right and that they are doing everything the correct

way because they are able to see good results in the beginning. People see good results in the

beginning, but they may be deceiving to the eye because you dont always know what is going

on inside the body. The user may only be looking on how their body is doing on the outside, but

they cant always feel how they are supposed to on the inside. There may be damage to organs or

your body not growing properly, which would throw off the way that your body should function.

After the steroid cycle is over, various amounts of people may fall into a deep depression and

loss most if not all of the hard work they did. Anabolic steroids can be very deceiving to the user

and can cause harsh effects if not used properly or with the help of a professional who does

know.

As you may know now, there is a lot of debate and many different things that come along

with the discussion of people using anabolic steroids. Men without a question use more steroids

than women, but women definitely use them as well. Men typically have more reasons to use

steroids whether it is for sports, competition, personal use, and if you are getting older and still

want to get in really good shape. Women typically use steroids for competition and for sports
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only. They definitely could have more reasons, but they are much less likely to do so. The youth

need to be more educated about this topic, so that they can either learn how to do it safely when

they get older or stay away from it throughout their life. This will also erase a lot of false stigmas

and bring a safer environment to the physical fitness and steroids industry.

Works Cited

Kimenje, Kamau. "The Effects of Steroids on Women Athletes [column]." Gale Virtual
Reference Library, 12 Oct. 2007,
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Kindred, Dave. "What Steroids Did to Me." Gale Virtual Reference Library, 2008,
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"National Geographic | Benefits and Side Effects of Steroids Use 2015."

YouTube.com, uploaded by 24 Physic, 19 July 2015, www.youtube.com/
watch?v=qXaDDa3FB5Q.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Performance-Enhancing Drugs Are Harmful to

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The Aesthetic Effects of Popular Steroids (Test, Tren, Deca, Dbol & More)."
Youtube.com, uploaded by FitZeek, 31 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/
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"The Potential Positive and Negative Psychological Effects of Anabolic

Steroids." Youtube.com, uploaded by Jacob Ross, 2 June 2016,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYNaTl5JhTw. Accessed 5 Jan. 2017.

West, Doug. "Steroids Are Harmful." Gale Virtual Reference Library, 2006,
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