Why are Steroids forbidden from Sport?

anabolic steroid

While many people from different quarters have suggested the deregulation of performance-enhancing drug use in sport, the reality is, this deregulation is more than likely to cause an irreparable damage to the reputation of major sporting events.

Take the Olympic Games for example, the spirit with which the games is hosted is one borne out of the need to project the principles of fair play,  solidarity, friendship, and mutual respect.

These principles are held together by a fine thread which can be easily broken by doping. Athletes that have been caught for doping lose the respect of their peers because they go against these principles.

Winning and the ambition to win is good, but it must be done in a fair way. With the use of steroid medicine to enhance performance, it makes winning a whole less sweeter for not just the athlete, but also fans of the sport.

steroid medicine

It is no wonder why an organisation like the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA was created. WADA’s job is to help maintain the integrity of all competitive sporting events by ensuring that athletes adhere to a strict ethical code of conduct. One where doping of any kind is not permitted and can result in severe punishment being meted down to offenders.

anabolic steroid

 

I. What is Steroid Medication?

I. What is Steroid Medication?

Steroid medication is used throughout medical science for the treatment of a host of diseases and medical conditions. Anabolic steroid in itself is not something to be ostracised because it offers an enormous amount of health benefits many of whom are yet to be fully understood.

Steroid medication
Anabolic steroid

Anabolic steroids are derivatives of natural hormones that are produced by organs in the body. One popular natural hormone that many steroids are designed to copy is testosterone.

Testosterone enanthate which is a synthetic form of testosterone is used in treating transgender men undergoing testosterone replacement therapy or TRT. Steroid medication is also used in the treatment of people suffering from a potentially life threatening wasting syndrome like that caused by HIV/AIDS or different kinds of cancer.

Steroid medication

But while steroid medicine has many prescription medical uses, it is the nonprescription uses of anabolic steroid that tends to receive more attention from mainstream media.

steroid medicine
anabolic steroid

Doping in major sports and sporting events like in the Major Baseball League World Series or the Tour de France cycling event, receive way more publicity (and with reason) than any medical breakthrough that steroids are involved in.

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II. Performance Enhancing Drug Use and the Issue of Doping in Sports

II. Performance Enhancing Drug Use and the Issue of Doping in Sports

Throughout the history of modern sports, there have been many incidences of doping in sports. The issue of doping in sports is as old as the late 19th century when a Dutch rowing team was accused of using some form of performance-enhancing drug (PED) in helping them win a race.

In the Olympics, athletes from the former Soviet Union were accused and exposed for using anabolic steroids before and during the Olympics. Disgraced athletes like Ben Johnson and Marion Jones will go down in history for their doping rather than their athletic prowess.

There are those that say anabolic steroid use in sport should be legalised, but these people often fail to understand the implication of this to not only sports, but also to the wider society.

anabolic steroid

If steroids are legalised in sports, it would defeat the purpose of sporting events, such as; the Olympics. The integrity of the global event would be lost. Athletes are likely to be more focused on the cocktail of steroids that they need to succeed in their sport rather than on training, hard work, and their own physical abilities.

It would become a rat race for both athletes and federations, as they search for those steroids that would give their athletes a competitive edge over their competitors.

anabolic steroid

Indeed, sports as we know it would be completely lost. There would be no credibility to speak of and people could use whatever is necessary to succeed. The spirit of solidarity, mutual respect, friendship, and fair play would truly be lost for good.

If one athlete loses in an event, he/she would simply increase their drug use or they would start using a more potent drug without any regard for their health and long-term wellbeing.

 

III. What are the Dangers of Doping?

III. What are the Dangers of Doping?

Apart from the risk of being caught for doping, receiving a ban, damaging a career, and ruining one’s reputation, athletes also put their health in serious danger when they use anabolic steroid drugs to enhance their athletic performance before or during a competitive sporting event.

anabolic steroid

While using recommended steroids in bodybuilding in a safe and proper way may only leave bodybuilders with mild reversible side effects to contend with, doping in sports may require athletes to run even longer cycles and take evn high doses of several steroids.

This may leave athletes with both short and long-term health complications. Typically, post-cycle therapy or PCT is required after each cycle and before the start of a new steroid cycle, but when cycles are extensive and repeated at such a fast rate, the remedial effects of PCT may be lost.

Athletes are at risk of a vast number of health problems even as they seek to excel in their sports through doping. Some of these health issues include;

• Liver toxicity health issues which can lead to jaundice, drug-induced hepatitis, liver tumor, and liver failure.
• Enlarged vital organs like enlarged liver, kidneys, and heart.
• Reproductive health problems, such as: erectile dysfunction, irregular menstrual cycles, and impotency.
• Masculinization in female athletes resulting in breathing atrophy, enlargement of clitoris, deepening or hoarseness of the athletes voice, male pattern baldness, excessive facial and body hair growth.
• Feminization in male athletes characterised by male boobs or gynecomastia and excessive water retention.

Liver toxicity health issues which can lead to jaundice, drug-induced hepatitis, liver tumor, and liver failure.

Enlarged vital organs like enlarged liver, kidneys, and heart.

Reproductive health problems, such as: erectile dysfunction, irregular menstrual cycles, and impotency.

Masculinization in female athletes resulting in breathing atrophy, enlargement of clitoris, deepening or hoarseness of the athletes voice, male pattern baldness, excessive facial and body hair growth.

Feminization in male athletes characterised by male boobs or gynecomastia and excessive water retention.

Even if these athletes maintain safe doses and practice PCT, using steroids steadily and for a long period of time would only have long-term health implications that athletes would have to live with long after their careers have ended.

 

IV. What is the Future of Doping?

IV. What is the Future of Doping?

The more WADA continues to add new anabolic steroid drugs and steroid hormones to their list of banned substances, the more pharmaceutical companies in countries where steroid production and use are not entirely illegal are producing new designer steroids aimed at evading conventional drug testing.

anabolic steroid

There is one school of thought that suggests the legalisation and regulation of doping in sport while another school of thought says that legalising steroid use in sport will kill the purpose of sports in general.

People need to be inspired by sporting feats that were achieved fairly. Children need good role models to look up to, but with doping being legalised, there would always be a footnote saying he or she took steroids to succeed in their careers.

Though steroids are forbidden in sports, this has not stopped athletes from trying to beat the system by using anabolic steroid drugs that will enhance their performance while being hard to detect by modern drug testing methods.

anabolic steroid

WADA and other similar anti-doping organisations are constantly upgrading their testing methods to ensure that any athlete doping PEDs or anabolic steroids are fished out.

 

 

V. Conclusion

V. Conclusion
Anabolic steroid

There will be no ceiling on the type of steroids or performance-enhancing drugs that would be used, when they would be used and how they would be used by athletes. For now it is better for sports in general that doping in sports is illegal, but no one really knows what the future would hold for doping in sport. Maybe a time would come when it is legalised, and while this remains unlikely, it is at least a distinct possibility.