Anabolic Steroid Abuse And Side Effects Essay — страница 3

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chest, back, and upper pubic area, but she also can experience male pattern baldness and have a receding hairline. A woman’s skin becomes very coarse and acne appears. Hypertrophy, or enlargement, of her clitoris occurs as well. Most of these physical side effects are irreversible. You can’t wake up one day and realize you want your old self back. Physically, anabolic steroids take captive almost everything that makes you a woman. c. Behavioral side effects Next, anabolic steroids affect a woman behaviorally. A woman may find herself very irritable, getting angry over the littlest of incidences, and show signs of high aggression which can lead to violent outbursts. Some doctors and users both refer to these outbursts as “roid rage.” More frequently, a woman will suffer

from mood swings. She becomes very aware of her surroundings. This heightened awareness can sometimes lead to schizophrenic and/ or psychotic episodes and hypomania (part of the manic-depressive cycle). She might feel like everyone is always staring at her. A woman can become so confident with herself, see another woman who she thinks looks better than her, and be thrown into a depression, or worst a rage. That depression, though, is the marking point of a dependence on anabolic steroids because the first thing the woman will usually do is take another cycle and become a gym rat once again. To accompany the dependence, a woman can also suffer from withdrawal and suffer withdrawal symptoms including psychosis, depression, listlessness, apathy, loss of appetite, feelings of

anxiety, or experience the “roid rage” previously mentioned. A woman can become forgetful and very distracted when she is using. Sometimes she will be very confused and wonder why she is doing what she is doing or acting the way she is acting. Most of all she won’t understand why the things are happening to her the way they are happening. On anabolic steroids a woman will be very mentally unstable. This will affect all aspects of her life including job, family, and relationships. Steroid users report significantly more somatic, depressive, anxiety, hostility and paranoid complaints when using than when they were not. Most psychological effects will be directly related to the distinct chemical structure of the steroids being used. While very few studies have assessed the

relationship of androgens to aggression or violent behavior there is a pattern of association between testosterone levels and observed aggression in these studies. Some studies are plainly stating that evidence documenting short term behavioral changes before and after the use of steroids is extremely limited and inconclusive. Researchers are having trouble determining if violent outbursts and psychological changes of a user are really do to the use of steroids or if some psychological problems were present before use and simply brought to the surface by using. Researchers can’t establish how mentally stable a woman was before she started using (unless she started using purposely for the study). This then can distort the results of any study conducted. Researchers are

suggesting though that aggressive behavior associated with the use of anabolic steroids poses a significant threat on public health. IV. Functional side effects Last, anabolic steroids affect a woman’s natural body functions. With an increase in testosterone levels, her hormone levels are far from being in synch. Besides having mean serum testosterone levels around 30 times greater than normal, a woman will have a decrease in sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG- a protein produced in the liver) (Malarkey, Strauss, Leizman, Liggett, Demers; 1991), a decrease in follicle-stimulating hormones, a decrease in circulating HDL-cholesterol, and a decrease in thyroid binding proteins. With these ever changing levels of hormones a woman’s immune system is at risk. She can become very

vulnerable to infectious diseases and just might be hospitalized by the common cold. One study conducted said that it is possible that anabolic steroids might inhibit the immunomodulatory and antiviral activities of androgens like DHEA (acts on adrenal glands to induce the production of corticosteroids and dehydroepiandrosterone) (Hughes, Rady, Smith; 1998). Also, this study further indicated that anabolic steroids significantly inhibited the production of corticotrophin in blood lymphocytes immediately following a viral infection. Simply stated, they can cause the prevention of antibodies when you get sick and lead to altered immune reactions. Cardiovascular risk factors include the alteration or diminishing of her glucose tolerance and hyperinsulinism (become resistant to