Today, athletes and others abuse anabolic steroids to enhance performance and also to improve physical appearance. Anabolic steroids are taken orally or injected, typically in cycles of weeks or months (referred to as "cycling"), rather than continuously. Cycling involves taking multiple doses of steroids over a specific period of time, stopping for a period, and starting again. In addition, users often combine several different types of steroids to maximize their effectiveness while minimizing negative effects (referred to as "stacking").

Health Hazards

• For men - shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts, increased risk for prostate cancer.
  
• For women - growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris, deepened voice.
  
• For adolescents - growth halted prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes. This means that adolescents risk remaining short for the remainder of their lives if they take anabolic steroids before the typical adolescent growth spurt.

In addition, people who inject anabolic steroids run the added risk of contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, which causes serious damage to the liver.

Scientific research also shows that aggression and other psychiatric side effects may result from abuse of anabolic steroids. Many users report feeling good about themselves while on anabolic steroids, but researchers report that extreme mood swings also can occur, including manic-like symptoms leading to violence. Depression often is seen when the drugs are stopped and may contribute to dependence on anabolic steroids. Researchers report also that users may suffer from paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment stemming from feelings of invincibility. 1

Steroid abuse can also affect the heart (cardiovascular system) and cholesterol (lipid profile). Generally, in studies where steroids are abused, HDL-cholesterol (good) declines, and LDL-cholesterol tends to go up. In a related area, the heart often has to work harder because of this, and there also seems to be a steroid-related mild hypertrophy of the left ventricle which is accompanied by a decreased diastolic relaxation. This is very unclear, as regards steroid use, with regards to potential for reversibility and what portion is due to steroid use and what portion is due to training, which also increases ventricle size. Also in a related vein are increases in diastolic blood pressure. All of this increases risk for cardiovascular disease.

Steroid abuse also can cause potential aggressiveness. This is from higher circulating androgen levels, and while increased aggressiveness may be beneficial for training and competition, when steroids are abused may also lead to violence out of the gym or off the field. This may also cause a form of dependency, although that remains unclear currently in the medical field with regards to steroid abuse.

It´s important to note that steroid abuse is the cause of many side effects. It´s when the line is crossed from use into abuse that we see all of these effects as being possible and probable.

Source: nida.nih.gov