Many Teen Girls Use Steroids

Self-image, not sports, is the motivation, study says

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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MONDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Teenage girls who admit using anabolic steroids are less likely to be athletes and more likely to have other health-harming behaviors, researchers are reporting.

A national survey of high schools showed that 5.3 percent of teen girls admitted to using or having used anabolic steroids, which are synthetic substances related to male sex hormones and are illegal without a prescription.

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"Steroid use is a marker of very risky behavior," said lead researcher Dr. Linn Goldberg, head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. His research is published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

In the study, Goldberg and his colleagues collected data on anabolic steroid use among teen girls using a national sample of U.S. high schools done in 2003 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the survey, 7,544 teen girls in grades nine through 12 answered questions about sports participation, steroids, ecstasy use and other illegal or unhealthy behaviors.

"In seventh grade, over 7 percent admitted steroid use," Goldberg said.

The researchers also found that girls involved in team sports were less likely to use steroids.

Girls take steroids for a variety of reasons, Goldberg said. "These are body-shaping drugs," he said. "They take it to get more lean body mass. Some take them for protection -- to get stronger."

In addition, girls using steroids were significantly more likely to practice other health-harming behaviors, including smoking, drinking and using marijuana and cocaine, Goldberg's group found.

Moreover, these girls were more likely to have had sexual intercourse before age 13; been pregnant; to drink and drive or ride with a drinking driver; to carry a weapon; or been involved in a fight on school property in the past year. They were also more likely to have feelings of sadness or hopelessness almost every day for at least two weeks, and attempted suicide.

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