Why Do Athletes Use Anabolic Steroids?

The competitive desire to achieve victory has always been present in sports and athletic events since ancient Greece. Athletes throughout time have sought after the glory of being crowned a champion and praised for their efforts. However, especially in recent decades, the desire for greatness has caused athletes to turn to a more controversial method of obtaining success: performance-enhancing drugs. Performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs, are any substances taken by athletes to improve their performance. These drugs give athletes an unfair advantage over their competitors and can cause problems both on and off the field. Athletes, especially those in professional leagues, have a “win at any cost” mentality. While competitiveness is a great quality in all aspects of sports, it can …show more content…
Anabolic steroids give users faster recovery time, allows them to work harder for longer periods of time, and gives some aggressive feelings that may motivate them (PEDs: Know the Risks, n.p.). However, the list of possible health issues outweighs the beneficial effects. Some risks include: tendonitis/tendon rupture, liver tumors, high blood pressure, heart and circulatory problems, joint pain, and stunted growth (PEDs: Know the Risks, n.p.). Stanford University also recently conducted over two dozen studies on athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs. The university discovered that users had more lean body mass, but there was no increase in actual muscle strength of the biceps and quadriceps (Krieger, n.p.). Most of the muscle mass increase was a result of excess fluids in the body, not actual muscle. Scientists also discovered an increase in lactate-production in some users, which instead of increasing energy, made the muscles tire even faster (Krieger, n.p.). Stanford concluded that steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs were more harmful than