Education is an important tool in helping the athlete understand the potential harmful consequences of anabolic steriod use.

Nearly all of the anabolic steriods taken by mouth cause abnormal liver function. These abnormalities range from the common, but usually harmless, leakage of enzymes from the damaged liver tissue into the blood to rare, but very serious, liver cancer and liver bleeding.

The appearance of liver enzymes in the blood ordinarily ceases when athletes stop using steriods, but liver cancer and bleeding have caused deaths among a few athletes who have abused anabolic steriods.

Risk of Heart Disease

Many athletes who abuse anabolic steriods have high blood pressure (hypertension). They also have decreased amounts of HDL-cholesterol, the so-called "good cholesterol," that helps the body avoid the buildup of fat in the walls of the arteries. Both high blood pressure and low HDL-cholesterol increase the chance of having serious heart disease at a relatively early age.

Sexual and Reproductive Disorders

Many male athletes who take large doses of anabolic steriods have shrunken testicles. They also have such poor sperm production that virtually all of them who have used steriods for six months or more are sterile. Sperm count may not return to normal for seven months or more after discontinuing use.

In many men, steriod abuse leads to a feminzing growth of the nipples that can only be corrected with surgery. In most women, on the other hand, steriod abuse causes shrinkage of the breasts to more masculine proportions.

Other masculinizing effects of anabolic steriod use by females are very common, including the growth of facial hair, thinning of head hair and possible baldness, deepening of the voice, irregularity or absence of the menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris, and shrinking of the uterus.

Baldness, growth of facial hair, enlargement of the clitoris, and deepening of the voice usually cannot be reversed, even when steriods are no longer used - these are permanent changes.

Psychological Disorders

Among the more commonly reported psychological effects of steriod abuse are increases or decreases in sex drive, increased aggressive behavior, mood elevation or depression, and "psychological addiction" to the drugs.

More rare are schizophrenia and psychotic behavior patterns. For example, steriod abusers have been know to head-but the windshields out of cars, or to purposely crash their cars into trees.

Even more frightening are claims by several athletes charged with murder that they committed then under a "steriod rage."

Effects on Growth

The long bones of young athletes up to 18 years and sometimes older are still growing. If young athletes abuse anabolic steriods, the growth plates of those bones may close earlier than usual. This diminshes the height they could have reached as adults had they not taken steriods.

Conclusion

Young people should be told that very few athletes are know to have become seriously ill or to have died from steriod abuse and that habits such as smoking tobacco or driving while intoxicated are probably far more deadly. On the other hand, they should also be told that few, if any, steriod abuser escapes all of the potential harmful effects of these drugs.

Finally, athletes should be reminded that, as was once the case for tobacco smoking, it is possible that we will not know the full extent of the harmful effects of anabolic steriods for another 20 to 30 years.

Note: Use with permission from Gatorade Sports Science Institute.