Paper Example: Effects of Anabolic Steroids on Male and Female Athletes

Engaging in sports like athletics is one of the most significant ways that young people can be physically active, have fun, and make friends. Games are also helpful in building vital life skills like perseverance and discipline. However, the pressure may be high on some young athletes due to their quests to make the team and gain competitive advantage, thereby underscoring their need to use banned substances like anabolic androgenetic steroids (AAS). Most of these performance-enhancing drugs are primarily used by male athletes who play baseball, football, lacrosse, and other sports. However, female athletes sometimes use such drugs as well. Anabolic-androgenic steroids underly a medical term for the drugs used illegally by some athletes in the quest to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents and may, at times, be referred to as doping or juicing (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons,2020).Moreover, anabolic steroids are composed of testosterone and other substances related to testosterone that helps promote skeleton muscles' growth, increasing g the concentration of hemoglobin mediation of secondary sexual characteristics (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,2011). The big question is, do anabolic steroids have effects on male and female athletes? Therefore, anabolic-androgenetic steroids have physical and mental side effects besides the health risks of athletes encompassing cancer, blood clots, stroke, heart, and liver problems.

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Discussion on Anabolic-androgenic Steroid on Male and Female Athletes

The use of AAS is prevalent in the competitive sport in both joiners and senior age groups in which both elite and non-elite participants take them. Besides, doping agents may be accompanied by non-sporting contexts by people in the quest of improving g their physique by increasing their muscles and decreasing their fat mass. AAS has been used since the 1930s in promoting muscle growth, enhancing the cosmetic appearance, and improving athletes' performances. Although the substances are controlled, they can only be prescribed by the physicians. Although currently, it is possible to illegally obtain the AAS devoid of prescriptions (American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists,2011).

The anabolic steroid can be addictive, thereby making it difficult for an individual to stop using them to attain accurate data; the prevalence of doping agent use has limitations on individuals. A shred of conclusive evidence depicts that doping agents like AAS, anabolic agents, and growth agents, among others, underscore considerable health risks. That stems from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, mental health issues, diabetes, virilization in females, and the suppression of male naturally produced androgens (Bird et al.,2016).

Doping with AAS is prevalent in both male and female athletes and has raised a growing public health concern.

Female athletes who use doping agents, for instance, have been associated with adverse effects, including the deepening of the voice, menstrual disturbances, hirsutism, acne, cardiac arrhythmias, and worse sudden death (Huang & Barasia,2017). Therefore, there is a need for detecting AAS abuse in athletes to ensure fairness in competition, coupled with educating the athletes on the adverse consequences of AAS. Other treatments juxtapose the management of the symptoms of withdrawal, education, and counseling. Healthcare providers also need to address the issue, encouraging cessation and referring the substance abuse patients to centers of treatment to prevent the long-term irreversible consequences of using anabolic steroids.

Types of Anabolic Steroid Substances, their Prevalence, and Risk Factors of Abuse

Anabolic steroids comprise testosterone and other substances that are related to testosterone that helps in the promotion of the growth of skeleton muscles, increased concentration of hemoglobin, and the mediation of secondary sexual characteristics. The supraphysiological doses of testosterone may increase serum testosterone levels from 10-100 times the normal levels and are needed to have the desired athletic and cosmetic effect (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,2011). Following the inactive nature of the oral and injectable testosterone, its esters and ethers have developed to enhance bioavailability when administered orally, intramuscularly, and transmurally.

The oral types of steroids that enhance bioavailability are methandienone, mesterolone, fluometuron, metolazone, oxymetholone, and tinazoline. The exact prevalence of anabolic steroid is yet to be known. However, the National Households Survey on Drug Abuse estimates one million US individuals who are former and current users of anaerobic steroids and more than 300,000 individuals who annually use the substances (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,2011).

The risk factors on the use of doping agents underscore the pressure to perform well in amateur and professional athletics, making most athletes pursue illegal and unsafe means of enhancing their performances. The anabolic steroid is viable for improving athletics' performance by increasing their aggressiveness and muscles' strength. The use of taking anabolic steroids is also informed by the athletes' need to improve their physical appearances as such substances increase the size of the flesh and reduce the fat mass. Also, most fierce athletes desire to win besides having the satisfaction of personal accomplishment, coupled with their pursuance of winning a medal for their country or securing a spot on a professional team (Mayo clinic, 2020). Such kind of an environment accelerates the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Other perceived factors for the anabolic use among teenagers juxtaposed the perceived social pressure inn increasing their musicality, the negative image of the body, and depression. Moreover, most anabolic steroid users are likely to have participated in high school sports, have engaged in other risky behaviors, and used other illicit substances and are expected to begin using anabolic steroids in late teenage years. The global lifetime prevalence for the abuse of AASs is 6.4% in males and 1.6% in females (Huang & Basaria,2017). Most AAS is generally obtained via the internet and through dubious means, most of which have not undergone proper testing and are often consumed in high doses and other drugs. The measurement of such medications can be detected through the testing kits in urine that may be commercially available and the testing for the naturally occurring and novel compounds that may be cumbersome.

Adverse Effects of AAS on Male and Female Athletes

There exist significant adverse psychological and physical effects of AAS on users. For instance, it causes substantial cosmetic and reproductive changes in women, coupled with affecting the serum lipid parameters that can majorly increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases and thrombotic events like myocardial infarctions, stroke, and venous thromboembolism. Additionally, the use of anabolic steroids during pregnancy may result from int virilization of the female fetus. There also produces psychological effects inclusive of but not limited to mood changes, irritability, psychosis, hostility, and personality changes. Also, the use of needles unsanitary and sharing the same needles increases the users' risks of infections like HIV, hepatitis, and intramuscular obsesses. Most of the AAS health risks may be irreversible.

Moreover, the anabolic steroid may be challenging to stop using following their addictive nature. That makes most of the users to develop a psychological dependence on the AAS. Anabolic steroids in women may underscore extreme dissatisfaction in the body's image and dysmorphic syndrome in the organization that exemplifies anorexia. That makes such women engage in rigid eating, coupled with schedules that may impair occupational and social functioning. Similarly, many anabolic steroid users also use other drugs, thereby accelerating the symptoms and deaths.

Physical and Psychological Dangers of Anabolic Steroids

The abuse of steroids presents serious health problems, including both short term and long-term side effects. Anabolic steroids' short-term physical effects damage underly sexual and reproductive disorders, severe acne, and fluid retention. The short-term physical side effects of anabolic steroids in men are reversible upon the discontinuation of steroids. On the other hand, women may experience musicalizing effects like body and facial hair growth, deepening of voice, baldness, and enlarged clitoris as physical side effects of anabolic steroids, which are irreversible (US Department of Justice,2004). The abuse of anabolic steroids long term adverse physical side effects in both men and women underscore stroke—damage of the heart and adverse cardiovascular effects.

The males may also experience loss of sexual drive, sterility, decreased levels in hormones, reduced sperm production, and prostate enlargement. On the other hand, the females may develop infertility, menstrual irregularities, and musicalizing effects encompassing facial hair, permanently deepened voice, expansion of the clitoris, and diminished size of the breasts (US Department of Justice,2004). Psychological effects that may result from the abuse of anabolic steroids are inclusive and not limited to depression, nervousness, delusions, extreme irritability, mood swings, including manic-like symptoms that may result in violence, impaired judgments like feeling invincible, hostility and aggression. High dosages on the use of AAS are associated with chronic effects that present s severe impact on several organ systems.

Neuropsychiatric Effects of Anabolic Steroids.

Long term abuse of AAS is associated with adverse neuropsychiatric effects like aggression, impulse control, and hypomania. Most men who take AAS to enhance their body image typically have underlying neuropsychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety (Anawalt,2019). Since AAS alters neuron signaling in the brain directly, encompassing the pathways that use neurotransmitters. Also, AAS dosages may result in maniac symptoms in men. Any attempt to stop using the AAS may result in anxiety, depression, and loss of self-esteem for a long time. The withdrawal symptoms of AAS may subsequently occur into persistent suppression of endogenous testosterone production during the phase of recovery and the loss of muscle mass, which is dissapropriately vital for most men (Anawalt,2019). Additionally, the withdrawal of AAS may provoke most athletes to reinitiate its use after chronic use discontinuation.

Effects of Anabolic Steroids on the Reproductive System

The exogenous use of AAS suppresses endogenous testosterone and spermiogenesis in men, coupled with progestogen, estrogen, and ovulation in women. Most men who use AAS are infertile following their suppressed spermatogenesis and shrink testes (Maria et al.,2017). Such men also report decreased libido and erectile dysfunction following the lack of estrogen effect in the brain. Apart from anovulatory infertility in women, they also develop clitoromegaly with a chronic high dosage of AAS use.