Anabolic Steroids in Sport & Exercise

In most cases, people use anabolic steroids in sports and exercise. Sportspersons, including athletes, bodybuilders, footballers and others, who put a lot of stake in improved performance on the field, resort to frequent usage of the drug. The same goes for those who wish to build muscles and cut down on body fat, thereby presenting themselves with well-toned physique.

Researchers have found that there is a growing tendency among youth to abuse anabolic steroids. In sport and exercise the phenomenon is known to be happening for quite awhile. But there are cases where apparently well-built persons too use the drug, believing that without it they will look small and insignificant. In medical parlance, it is called muscle dysmorphia, which surprisingly is prevalent in both men and female, though to a lesser degree in latter's case.

Even as anabolic steroids are known to cause less to grievous harm to health over short to long term of usage, what is equally true is that there are many myths surrounding its supposed ill-effect. One such is that anabolic steroids cause shrinking in penis and testicles. While that is true in short term, over long term the size returns to normalcy soon after exogenous androgen administration is halted. This is one reason why boys at tender age are never suggested to use the drug, for in their case the effect can be quite damaging.

Be that as it may, the fact that the drug can boost muscle size and ability to perform well in exerting games would mean that the use of anabolic steroids in sports and exercise is not going to go away forever. To that extent, the role of agencies to control the abuse of the substances is important.

And indeed that is the reason why the US Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 has been enacted to ban selling and using anabolic steroid and pro-hormone without relevant medical prescription. To what extent the new act is able to check the abuse of anabolic steroids in sport and exercise, while not unnecessarily preventing genuine medical reasons, remains to be seen.