Steroids destroy careers, ethics, balls

The world of sports has constantly demonstrated the tests of human strength, endurance and attaining personal goals. Anabolic steroid and drug use in sports, however, has long created controversy and has also destroyed the careers of well known athletes like track star Marion Jones, who tested positive last year for the performance enhancing drug erythropoietin, or EPO.

If athletes are well aware of the repercussions — both physical and ethical — of steroid and drug abuse, why do they continue to use them?

"Most of them know that the damage is, for the most part somewhat minimal, and they know the performance improvements are significant. Most athletes, even if they think it will affect them, if they know that this is their way to the gold medal, they'll still use it," said Dan Wathen, head trainer of YSU's athletic department.

YSU junior Shawn Schumaker, Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center trainer, said that college athletes might use steroids because it gives them a competitive edge. If they see their professional sports idols using them, they too will be inclined to use, he said.

Wathen explained that while steroid use isn't as rampant at the college level it is more apparent in professional sports. He also said that even in the past, there has never been a great deal of steroid use at YSU.

Anabolic steroids are types of steroid hormones, like testosterone, that contribute to the process of protein synthesis in muscle mass production.

Wathen said that anabolic steroids, which are synthetic, are mainly used in power sports that require a significant amount of training and speed, but Schumaker estimates that most sports have some amount of steroid use in them and it's mainly just a matter of how effectively usage is hidden.

Although the likelihood of injury is increased while training and using steroids, Wathen said recovery time and physical endurance are also increased, thus giving athletes further reason to continue abuse.

Athlete or not, there are many risk factors involved with steroid abuse. For the less detrimental, abusers might begin to notice the appearance of acne, body hair growth/loss, clitoral enlargement, testicular shrinkage or increased blood pressure.

For the more serious cases, abusers can experience early heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

Steroids can also cause psychological problems such as mood swings, increased aggression that might escalate to violence and, in some cases, depression.

As anabolic steroids can be injected (and taken orally), the practice of needle sharing also increases users' risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis.

Anabolic steroids can only legally be prescribed medicinally for developmental and impotency problems and in muscle loss prevention cases for AIDS patients.

While drug testing is effective to a certain extent, Wathen explains that it has become increasingly difficult to detect new performance-enhancing drugs, or lab constructed designer steroids, and human growth hormones because of their ever-changing compositions.

The NCAA updates its drug testing and policies and procedures yearly and has taken a firm no-drug stance for college athletes across the country.

"If your only motivation is winning — winning at all costs — there's not a whole lot you can do for those people in terms of changing their ideas on steroids. If it is to win properly, ethically, morally, then you won't use steroids," Wathen said.

Wathen said he feels steroid use is a sad commentary on both sports and society alike. The only true way to solve the dilemma of steroid abuse in sports is if society as a whole goes back to a more moral and ethical state.