y of the testes. Increased incidents of liver tumors and abnormal liver funtions have been noted in patients using anabolic steroids. Liver, prostate, and testicular cancer have been linked to steroid use, particularly oral steroids. Increases in high density cholesterol is noted in people using steroids, suggesting hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, and blood-clotting disorders. Also, athletes using steroids seem to be suffering many more muscle and tendon injuries. Some doctors wonder if it is the drug-induced brittelness of the muscle or tendon or the heavier weights that is being lifted. Others think the increased aggressiveness causes lifters to ignore warning signals from an overworked body and they train harder than they should. In adult women, severe masculinizing effects have been documented including hair growth onthe cheeks and the chin, male patern baldness, irreversible deepening of the voice, shrinkage of the breast size, uterine atrophy, and menstrual irregularities. In pre-adults, anabolic steroids can cause the premature closure of the bone growth plates resulting in shorter structures. Another major side effect includes what has been popularly called "roid rage". For training and competition, the increased aggressiveness has been classified as a benefit of steroid use; however, with increasing dosage, the increased aggression will have an adverse effect. Wild aggression and paranoid delusions are common in some steroid users, and they may also suffer from major depressions and peroids of spontaneous violence.Steroids can also be both physicaly and psychologically addictive. Physcially many many athletes experience severe depressions following periods of not taking the drug, similar to that of any other drug addict. Psychologically, steroid use can be compulsive and unstoppable in what has been termed by the medical community as "reversed anorexia". The steroid users have an uncontrollabl...
