Teens & Steroids

At the age of 15, Taylor Hooton was gaining height, but not much weight …

“Taylor was six-two, six-three, thin,” says his mother, Gwen.

Taylor was thin – until he was 16 – when he began using steroids. In about three months, he gained 30 pounds.

‘His stash of steroids were hidden,” says his mom, gesturing toward the drawer in Taylor’s room where he kept the needles and pills.

Taylor’s friend Billy Ajello, remembers how pleased Taylor was with his gains, “He was like, yeah man, you know, look how big I’ve gotten. My arms are huge.”

According to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control, over 6 percent of high school students have used steroids, up from 2 percent just a decade ago.

“Children that are getting the read from their parents, they’re getting the read from their coach, that anything that will make you better, anything that will make you faster, anything that will make you more aggressive, anything that will make you stronger and will therefore make us win more, is OK,” says Tedd Mitchell, M.D., Vice President of the Cooper Clinic.

And experts say the Internet makes it easier than ever for kids to order illegal steroids, often without warnings about negative side effects.

“All they understand is what they’ve read in body building magazines, what they’ve seen on the websites of these things, and it’s all one-sided. It’s all one-sided,” says Dr. Mitchell.

In fact, besides liver and heart problems, using steroids can cause extreme aggression and rage. Quitting can lead to withdrawal and deep depression.

“On their steroid rages, they can become homicidal. On their steroid withdrawal, the depression that can hit them can make them suicidal,” says Dr. Mitchell.

Right around his 17 th birthday, Taylor told his friends he had stopped using steroids.

A month later he hung himself in his bedroom using belts fashioned into a noose.

“When I went upstairs and I found him, and it was like, a mother’s nightmare,” his mother tearfully remembers. “What have steroids taken from our family? They’ve taken our precious son. They’ve taken the life of our son. That’s what they’ve taken from our family.”

Anabolic steroids, synthetic substances related to testosterone (the male sex hormone), can cause permanent damage to the heart, liver and kidneys, plus other physical and psychiatric side effects. A user typically takes several different types of oral and/or injected steroids, in multiple doses, for a specific period of time, and then stops for a set period of time before starting again. The warning signs of steroid use include:

• Exaggerated mood swings, increased irritability and aggression, and other behavioral changes such as: euphoria, increased energy, sexual arousal, mood swings, distractibility, forgetfulness, confusion and depression.
• Unusually greasy skin with stretch marks.
• Sudden increase in muscle size.
• Severe acne and stunting of bone growth.
• Jaundice (yellowing of the whites of the eyes), fluid retention, high blood pressure, increases in LDL (bad cholesterol) and decreases in HDL (good cholesterol).
• In males, shrinking of the testicles, difficulty or pain in urinating, baldness and breast enlargement.
• In females, development of masculine characteristics, such as decreased body fat and breast size, deepening of the voice, excessive growth of body hair and loss of scalp hair.

If you suspect your child may be using steroids, call your family doctor immediately.

Understand the pressure that may drive young athletes to use steroids and talk to your children about healthy competition. Encourage your child to prepare mentally for sporting events by practicing hard, getting sufficient sleep and eating right.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 325,000 teenage boys and 175,000 teenage girls are using steroids. Health problems caused by steroids may not appear for years after the steroids are taken. Steroids can cause bones to fuse early and prevent teens from reaching full growth potential. In addition to the health risks, steroids are illegal. Drug testing for all athletes has become more prevalent, and athletes who fail a drug test for steroids can face numerous legal consequences: jail time, monetary fines, exclusion from an event or from the team, or seizure of trophies or medals.

Steroids taken for an extended period of time can also:

• Stunt growth in teens by causing the growth plates in the bones to mature too fast and fuse.
• Cause irreversible liverdamage.
• Enlarge the heart muscles.
• Cause violent, aggressive mood swings.
• Contribute to heart disease.
• Increase cholesterol and lipid levels.
• Increase breast growth in males, especially teens.
• Create irreversible stretch marks.
• Heighten a person’s tendency to lose hair.
• Cause muscles to ache.

In addition to these, teen girls and women risk additional side effects:

• Permanent effects of male hair growth or male-pattern baldness
• Deepening of the voice

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National Institute on Drug Abuse