Recent newspaper articles have talked about a growing problem of steroid abuse in teenagers almost exclusively boys, and young men. Anabolic steroids are illegal to sell in the UK, but they aren’t illegal to buy, which means that people can get them over the Internet from other countries, or buy them in another country.

What Are Steroids?

In a nutshell, they are hormones, and there are many different kinds. But when people talk about steroids in the field of sports and bodybuilding, they are usually talking about anabolic steroids. This is a synthetic product that resembles the natural male hormone testosterone, and taking it can help you develop more muscle tissue.

 Why Are More Young People Taking Steroids?

There seems to be two reasons why boys, and it is much more likely to be boys taking them than girls, are turning to steroids. The first is to try and get an advantage in sports, but research has never shown that there’s any increase in ability when people take steroids. In fact, they are more likely to damage your response times and agility, and sports officials are very strict on weeding them out. Steroids do give you more muscle bulk though, and that leads to the second reason.

 Media Pressure

Just as girls have problems with anorexia and bulimia, as they are pounded every day with images of ‘perfect’ skinny women models and stars, boys are beginning to feel the pressure too. Sports stars, film stars and even male underwear models feature highly toned bodies, with glistening pecs, that essential ‘six-pack’ and washboard stomach. Men generally did not have bodies like this thirty or forty years ago, only bodybuilders and professional athletes. It’s all being created by the media’s obsession with image.

 So What’s the Problem?

The problem is that muscle bulk is not all that steroids can give you. Man boobs, for a start, bad acne, particularly on the back, premature baldness, mood swings, aggression and paranoia are all downsides of overdosing on testosterone. Although we talk of testosterone being a ‘male’ hormone, and oestrogen being a ‘female’ one, the truth is that they occur naturally, at different levels, in both men and women, and upsetting that balance causes problems.