Many Teen Girls Use Steroids

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Goldberg noted that steroids can be harmful: They get rid of good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol, they increase blood pressure, increase risk of liver tumors, make young women more masculine and can also stunt growth.

"Some of these changes may not change [after steroid use is stopped], including a deep voice and facial hair," Goldberg said. "They can also cause psychological problems, including, rage, uncontrolled aggression and depression."

Goldberg thinks that programs that teach girls about the dangers of drinking, smoking and drug use should include steroids. "In prevention programs for girls, you would want to deal with diet pills, marijuana and cocaine and not think of steroids in isolation," he said.

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Other experts viewed the research with a range of emotions.

One expert thought the problem of steroid use among teen girls is overstated.

"The publicity about steroid use was due to a mistake about the way these national surveys were constructed," said Dr. Harrison Pope, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The CDC's estimates of steroid use among teenage girls are almost certainly grossly inflated."

Pope thinks the problem is that the question about steroid use was too open-ended in the CDC survey. Since so many compounds contain steroids in one form or another, he said many girls probably didn't understand that the question was limited to "black-market" anabolic steroid use.

"The data suggests that true use of anabolic steroids among teenage girls is probably closer to 0.1 percent," Pope added.

Another expert disagreed.

"These data have been well established," said Charles Yesalis, professor emeritus of health policy and administration and exercise and sport science at Penn State University. "This paper just reinforces what has already been established. It's a done deal".

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