preview

Anabolic Steroids As Performance Enhancing Aids Essay

Better Essays

1. Introduction

In today’s society, one of the most controversial subject that is popping up in the news, is the use of anabolic steroids as performance enhancing aids. Anabolic steroids are man-made derivatives of the male hormone testosterone (Hoffman and Ratamess, 2006). They have been associated with professional and amateur athletes across the world but in society today it is not just athletes themselves taking them, but the general population looking to improve body image (Bailey et al., 2016). The main reason why athletes use them is that they are said to increase muscle mass and strength via the stimulation of protein synthesis (Kicman, 2008).
In 1935, testosterone was first discovered and isolated from bulls’ testis (Schänzer, 1996) and by 1939 exogenous testosterone was said to be used to aid performance (Wu and Kovac, 2016). It wasn’t official until the 1950’s when the first reports came out of anabolic steroid use, especially among the German rowing team in 1952 and the Russian weightlifting team in 1954 (Wu and Kovac, 2016). Governing bodies such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) then undertook a fight against doping (use of performance enhancers) banning the use most anabolic steroids in 1974 (Schänzer, 1996).
To deter the general population and athletes from using anabolic steroids, medical professionals have focused on studying the adverse side effects and efficacy of the steroids.
Also to control the misuse of

Get Access