External link, please review our disclaimer.

Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse

Hormonal Effects

When you look at Elaine as a record-breaking athlete, her super muscles don’t tell the whole story. Her accomplishments on the track field become meaningless as soon as you learn of the serious health consequences of her regular use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). She now suffers from high blood pressure, which makes her nose bleed during strenuous exercise. She has stopped menstruating. Lately, and to her total dismay, she has even started growing facial hair.

Source: www.nurse.com
Photo source: www.magnet.fsu.edu

Steroid abuse disrupts the normal production of hormones in the body, causing both reversible and irreversible changes. These changes include infertility and testicle shrinkage in men as well as masculinization in women.