Encouraging Teenage Boys Not to Use Steroids

Young Men Have Very Specific Desires and Steroids Can Prevent Them

Aug 25, 2009

While steroids may help young men attain short term athletic goals, they majorly inhibit the realization of most of their long term desires for success and family.

Using steroids dates back to 776 BC when athletes would ingest very particular parts of a sheep to increase drive and performance. In the United States, these very particular parts are known as Rocky Mountain Oysters.

During the 1950s, athletes in the Soviet Union were being injected with testosterone. More recently, Major League Baseball players, such as Mark McGuire, have used androstendione, which converts into testosterone in the body.

With heroes from yesterday and today are using drugs to get ahead, it is somewhat surprising that only 4% of high school athletes are using anabolic steroid shots or pills. But for those few, a dangerous game is being played that can lead to sudden death, or an extremely anti-climactic life.

Why Teens Use Steroids

Reasons for steroid use vary from non-athletes looking for a more cut look to aspiring stars seeking a coveted spot on the team that will later convert into a scholarship. In some cases, parents encourage steroid use as noted by Certified Athletic Trainer, Ken Locker, a former assistant trainer for the Dallas Cowboys football team.

Worse than the often lame reasons most kids today use steroids are the horrible side effects that come with using and abusing these drugs.

Side Effects of Steroids

Steroids are very dangerous when they are used in an illegal manner. Even when prescribed as a topical cream, they can cause harm. For example, eczema (dry skin) patients who apply steroid ointment too liberally will commonly find that the steroids dry the skin further.

When it comes to more potent, muscle-building, anabolic steroids, some of the common side effects are:

Real Results of Steroid Use/Abuse

Teens today need to enact some foresight. Will it really matter that they scored 20 touchdowns during senior year when their testicles have shrunken due to an excessive period of non-production? And how many women are going to want to be with a man that has breasts?

While these athletes are feeling like hot shots today, they will be walking medical pamphlets later.

As the liver and kidneys must constantly filter out the drugs that are being injected or ingested, they will eventually become damaged, especially to those who are also partaking in other drugs, such as nicotine and alcohol. While this may sound foreign, one way to explain to teens that they may be spending the rest of their lives needing to use a catheter to urinate is to use a scene from 2008's Best Picture, The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke.

In the end, these stars will play second string to guys who rode the bench in high school. Many of the future superstars who do not use drugs today are likely to be more attractive 10, 20, and 30 years down the road as they will probably have more success in the world beyond high school athletics. Considering that professional careers and successful marriages last ten times longer than high school athletic careers, trading one's ability to live happily later for minor sports fame today seems foolish, at best.

Sources

Atlas, Darla. "Teens Using Steroids Cheat Themselves and Their Health". DallasNews.com

The copyright of the article Encouraging Teenage Boys Not to Use Steroids in Teen Health is owned by Christopher Pascale. Permission to republish Encouraging Teenage Boys Not to Use Steroids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.