Body Image and Steroid Use. Part 1

Women in the workplace and stay-at-home-dads aren’t the only evidence of a new age of gender equality. Men’s new preoccupation with body image and women reaching for anabolic steroids tell the same tale.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington, D.C. reports that anabolic steroids have been linked to serious side effects in men since the 1950s. New research shows they are equally, if not more, damaging to women. But, dramatic as these health impacts are, side effects such as baldness, impotence, infertility and liver damage don’t seem to be dampening either gender’s interest in these substances.

If anything, men’s increasing preoccupation with body image — historically a female concern — and women’s increasing preoccupation with their athletic prowess — historically a male concern — have converged to push anabolic steroid abuse by both men and women to new heights, along with growing knowledge within the medical profession that the long-term health consequences of the fad can be significant and irreversible.

Anabolic Steroid Primer
According to NIDA, all anabolic steroids are derived from the male hormone testosterone. According to the U.S. White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, there are currently more than 100 different types of anabolic steroids available, and each requires a prescription to be used legally in the United States.

Steroids can be taken by mouth, by injection into muscle tissue, or rubbed on the skin as creams or gels. Although developed for use only for serious medical conditions, these substances are disturbingly easy to acquire. Nearly half of the high school seniors surveyed nationally in 1999 by NIDA reported it was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to secure these or other anabolic steroids without a prescription. Almost one-fourth of eighth graders surveyed at the same time agreed.

Bombarded by Buffed Body Images
According to Charles Yesalis, Ph.D., Penn State professor of health policy and administration and of exercise and sports science, both men and women are now equally caught up in the social pressure to have sculpted, muscular bodies like those of much-admired male and female professional athletes and entertainment figures. Such pressure, Yesalis and other researchers are finding, typically starts very early, even before puberty.

“Young girls have always had to struggle against media stereotypes, including stick-thin heroines and voluptuous, sexy bombshells,” Yesalis said. “Now with the rising visibility and popularity of women’s sports and the emergence of muscular, physically adept but very feminine actresses and female entertainers, girls are bombarded with buffed body images, such as those displayed in the WNBA or by the karate-kicking women in ‘Charlie’s Angels.’”

And girls are not the only ones harshly judging what they see in the mirror. “Young boys are equally impacted by the proliferation of pop culture musclemen such as professional wrestlers ‘The Rock’ and Steve Austin, as well as actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude VanDamme and Wesley Snipes, whose roles usually call for a muscular build,” Yesalis said. “Both girls and boys are equally caught up in trying to look like their cultural icons — and this pressure is leading them to misuse anabolic steroids as a shortcut to achieving the bodies they want.”

You know from experience that rapid ejaculation may destroy a relationship, but there’re effective, strong, safe remedies for premature ejaculation today. Rapid ejaculation also known as PE is the most prevalent kind of sexual dysfunction in men younger than 30.