More than a decade ago, a national survey of high school students revealed that about 5.3% of teenage girls responded positively to anabolic steroids use. Many wanted to develop muscles for different reasons; to have better shape and form, or to gain strength as protection. They were of the belief that taking steroids will provide their body with the nutrients that focus on growth and muscle development, since they think they’re not getting much from their regular meals.
In a separate study conducted by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University an analysis was made on data collected from CDC’s 2003 national samples of anabolic steroid use among U.S. teen girls. Dr. Linn Goldberg, head of the university’s Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine, said steroid use marked a very risky behavior among the 7,544 teen girls who admitted to taking steroid and other unhealthy or illegal substances.
However, the Oregon University researchers found out that teenage girls involved in sports were the least likely users of anabolic steroids.
Fast forward to the present, the story did not get any better since another study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still detected anabolic steroid use among teenage girls.
Apparently, there are still cases of health problems caused by steroid use that include but not limited to irregular menstrual periods, along with serious acne breakouts and abnormal growth of facial and body hair. All of which have been diagnosed by doctors as due to the presence of man-made steroids in their body systems.
What the FDA is Doing in Addressing the Problem
As additional approach to tackling the problem of steroid use among teenagers, the FDA has been taking actions against the unauthorized sources of anabolic androgenic steroids that most teenagers find online. Although the FDA admits that after one site has been taken down, another would emerge.
Currently black market sellers can now peddle their illegal products by way of e-commerce technologies. There are now advanced messaging apps that use Virtual Private Network (VPN), as opposed to web-based sites that use the public Internet network. That being the case, authorities are unable to their detect the illegal selling activities.
In addition, the FDA is calling the attention of parents of today’s teenagers to have awareness about the potential symptoms of steroid use and abuse. Signs include mood swings, serious acne outbreaks, increased body hair, and in some cases, the development masculine-like muscles.
Parents’ Role in Discouraging and Preventing Their Teen Girls from Using Anabolic Steroids
Perhaps the FDA should also encourage parents to provide their children with more healthy nutrition from which their teenagers can derive natural steroids. Steroids after all are synthetic versions of the natural chemical compounds occurring in plants, animals and animal by-products. Nowadays, most urban families are seeing both parents fully immersed in their respective job/s, thinking that in their teen years, their teenage daughters are able to fend for themselves.
Unfortunately, many modern-day parents overlook the nutritional needs of children entering the age of puberty, which could affect the development of a teenage girl’s body. As a result, young girls look for solutions online, following different suggestions and recommendations for improving physical appearance. Yet they do so without properly understanding the potential consequences of products being endorsed by influencers and advertising media.
By the way, it is also worth mentioning that not all online sources of anabolic steroid supplements are the same, as many are actually authorized distributors of pharmaceutical companies.
CanadaPeds dot com for one, has the largest inventory, being a leading supplier to many bodybuilders and intense fitness-workout buffs. As athletes, they receive prescriptions for steroid use to help in rapid muscle repair and cell generation.
While the online site also carries pharma grade steroids manufactured by a UGL known as syn pharma, the people working at CanadaPeds vetted the safety of the products before allowing inclusion in the online store’s inventory.