‘It’s Still Happening’, By: Julie Scelfo
A sports medicine expert discusses steroid abuse by teens and whether state laws on testing could help to solve the problem.
May 20, 2007
Steroid abuse by high school athletes remains a national concern. Earlier this month, the Florida legislature passed a bill (that’s still awaiting the governor’s signature) introducing a one-year, pilot steroid testing program for high school athletes in three sports: football, baseball and weightlifting. In Texas, House and Senate lawmakers are wrangling over how to fund a similar initiative that would become the largest high school steroid testing program in the country, with a goal of testing at least 22,000 of the state’s 733,000 athletes annually at about 1,300 public schools. The issue of teen steroid abuse was highlighted in a Dec. 20, 2004 NEWSWEEK cover story, “Toxic Strength”, which examined how steroid use by professional athletes influenced teen behavior. NEWSWEEK’s Julie Scelfo Spoke with Dr. Jordan D. Metzl, co-founder of the Sports Medicine Institute for Young Athletes at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and author of “The Young Athlete: A Sports Doctor’s Complete Guide For Parents” (Little, Brown and Company) to find out more about the dangers of steroid use by high school students.
How come?
There’s no institutionalized testing in high schools. In professional sports if athletes are being tested, we have an exact data point. In high school, you’re relying on some kids being tested, which is a very small number, and otherwise, just self-reports.
What do you think about laws requiring testing?
Testing high school students is a tremendous financial expense. However testing is a deterrent to use of performance enhancing drugs in any athlete, and that is also true in high school athletes. Although it can make a difference, the question is financially, is it the best allocation of resources? My feeling is the best defense is a good offense. And the best thing to do is a good offensive campaign about the side effects of steroids in teenagers, which are more serious than they are in adults.
What are some of the side effects of steroid use by teens?
It’s important to remember, anabolic steroids are very similar in structure to sex hormones, namely testosterone. Testosterone causes, among other things, emotional instability, which is why teenagers tend to be very emotional labile when they’re going through puberty, because they have surging sex hormones. So you take somebody who’s inherently labile to begin with, and you start loading on extra body testosterone in the form of anabolic steroids, it’s really like putting gasoline on a fire. So, the main issue of steroid use in teens as compared to adults is emotional stability issues. There are a number of cases of suicide related to anabolic steroid use and steroid withdrawal.
Aren’t there less severe but still terrible side effects?
Sure, for teenage boys, their testicles will shrink, which no teenager wants. They can get very significant acne. They can get high blood pressure, which they may or may not care about. And generally it’s just not a healthy thing to do. There’s some suggestion [anabolic steroid use] may make teens fail to reach their full adult height.
What about other performance-enhancing drugs like DHEA and creatine phosphate?
I think some of the natural supplements are misnamed. [Marketers] capitalize on the concept that if it’s natural, it’s good for you. And really nothing can be further form the truth. Heroin is a naturally occurring substance; cocaine is a naturally occurring substance. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for you just because it’s in nature. Also, there’s limited data on how good nutritional substances are specifically in teenage bodies. I think they should be used with extreme caution if used at all, and only with the supervision of a nutritionist.
