I know I have been nagging on about the dangers of steroid use but steroid users experience major and minor side effects of the drug. Some minor side effects are: acne, oily skin, excess hair growth, and deepening of the voice. If these are not unattractive enough then there are major side effects that could literally kill you. Cancer, increased risk of heart and liver disease, jaundice, fluid retention, bad cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and aggressiveness are the more serious side effects that could occur. An very interesting fact that I read in Fred C. Pampel's book Drug and Sports is that, " German soldiers in World War Two took early forms of steroids to increase aggressiveness"(11). Can you believe that a drug that is today used to improve physical strength was once used to make killers stronger?
The side effects vary from men and women . There are many symptoms that are gender specific. Now brace yourself because some of these can be pretty disturbing. According to The Partnership for a Drug-Free America," Side effects specific for men can include testicular atrophy or the shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, and the development of breasts." For women, you basically turn into a man with, " breast shrinkage, more facial and body hair, voice deepening, problems with menstrual periods, and clitoris enlargement" can occur. Of course there are many many more side effects that come with the use of steroids but these are just some of the main ones. Also, steroids can be extremely dangerous for growing teens because their bodies are still developing. This includes : stunted growth, hepatitis, rapid weight gain, body odor and HIV. After reading this I really do not understand what would even tempt a healthy teenager to want to experience any of these side effects. This just comes to show that kids today really need to be educated on what they are getting themselves into.
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