The effect of steroids on a person, like the effect they have had on the sports world, can be huge. Both positive and negative, these effects have been studied since the 1970s. Steroids have been known to increase body and muscle size of users dramatically in very short periods as a workout supplement. Adversely, they have also been known to create in users significant psychiatric symptoms, such as aggression and violence.
The steroids that are associated with different sports and muscle gain are known as anabolic steroids. Including human growth hormone and other performance enhancing drugs, they have produced steroids effects in men and women throughout the world. Among these effects are the development of masculine features, in both males and females, such as the growth of hair and the vocal cords.
Other steroids effects include increased appetite, increased bone growth, and the formation of muscles cells, which leads to increased strength. These positive effects are coveted and utilized by body builders and athletes across the world, amid much controversy. Other effects of steroids effects that can be seen as positive include short term muscle weight gain, reduction of fat mass, and strength increases from as much as 5-20%. Lean muscles mass is the area most positively affected, especially when combined with the workouts common to so many anabolic steroid users.
Some negative effects noticed in humans through the development of anabolic steroids have included an increased sexual desire, but a suppression of sexual hormones and a decrease of sperm production. In large doses, steroids effects have include increased cholesterol, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and artery disease, and the increased presence of acne. Sex-specific effects include infertility in men, an enlarged clitoris in women, and adverse fetal development in pregnant women. In both sexes, steroids have been known to stunt growth.
Among the most controversial and dangerous adverse effects of steroids have been psychiatric, and have been documented heavily on news programs. Known as “roid rage,” the steroids effects on a person’s mental state have been studied significantly. These include tendencies toward aggression, violence, mania, and, in some cases, even psychosis. Mood disorders and depression have been reported often, and suicide has been the result in at least one very public case in 2008. Though some claim that abuse is the main factor of these effects, the causes have been linked to steroids in general since their introduction into popular medicine and drugs.