Mostly the long-term effects of anabolic steroids comes from case reports rather than formal epidemiological studies.

Anabolic steroids use disrupts your normal production of hormones, causing both reversible and irreversible changes. Changes that can be reversed include reduced sperm production and shrinking of the testicles. Irreversible changes include male-pattern baldness and breast development in men.

In the female body, anabolic steroids causes masculinization:

• voice deepens
• clitoris enlarges
• body fat decrease
• smaller breast size
• skin becomes coarse

Women may experience excessive growth of body hair but lose scalp hair.

Anabolic steroids use has been associated with cardiovascular diseases by changing the levels of lipoproteins that carry cholesterol in your blood. In particular, oral steroids increase the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and decrease the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

High LDL and low HDL levels increase the risk of atherosclerosis, a condition in which fatty substances are deposited inside arteries and disrupt blood flow. If blood is prevented from reaching your heart or your brain, your are at risk for a heart attack or stroke.

Anabolic steroids also may increase your risk for damaging the heart muscle so that it does not effectively pump blood.

Steroid use may be involved with liver tumors, which can rupture and cause internal bleeding. It can also cause:

• acne
• cysts
• oily hair & skin

Now let’s talk behavior. Increased irritability and aggression seems to be involved with high dose usage of anabolic steroids. Look to your significant other for the voice on this.

With all these adverse side effects, why risk it for a silly game or looking manly-man. Prevent the preventable by living a healthy lifestyle.

• Anabolic Steroids: Why Illegal Drug of Choice for Some Athletes
• About Hormones and Natural Hormone Functions, Levels, Balance and Supplement Imbalance

Anabolic steroids were developed in the late 1930s primarily to treat hypogonadism. The primary medical use is to treat delayed puberty, some types of impotence, and wasting of the body caused by HIV infection or other diseases.

At that same time, scientists discovered that anabolic steroids could facilitate the growth of skeletal muscle in laboratory animals. This finding led to its first being used by bodybuilders and weightlifters, and then by athletes in other sports. Resulting in athletics illegal drug of choice by some athletes

The main reasons people give for using steroids is to improve their athletic performance. Another is to increase their muscle size or to reduce their body fat. All this desired enhancement use is contrary to law (illicit) and potentially contrary to health.

Steroid abuse has become so widespread in athletics that it can affect the outcome of sports contests.

Most illicit (illegal) steroids are sold at gyms, competitions, and through mail order operations. They are smuggled in from countries that do not require a prescription, illegally diverted pharmacies or synthesized in clandestine laboratories.

Prior to 2004, supplements such as THG and “Andro” could be purchased legally without a prescription. The purchase of these supplements, with the exception of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), are now illegal after the passage of amendments to the Controlled Substances Act.

These steroidal supplements can convert to testosterone or a similar compound in the body. Less is known about the side effects of steroidal supplements, but if large quantities of these compounds substantially increase testosterone levels in the body, then they also are likely to produce the same side effects as anabolic steroids themselves.

It is estimated that anabolic steroid abuse among athletes may range between one and six percent.

• Adverse Side Effects of Taking Anabolic Steroids