Anabolic Steroid Abuse Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Anabolic steroids are drugs such as testosterone or substances that work like testosterone. Doctors prescribe them to treat problems such as delayed puberty and other medical problems that cause the body to make very low amounts of testosterone. Steroids make muscles bigger and bones stronger. They also may cause puberty to start and can help some boys who have a genetic disorder to grow more normally.

Common anabolic steroid medicines include fluoxymesterone (such as Halotestin) and nandrolone (such as Durabolin). In the United States, you need a prescription to get any anabolic steroid. Illegal anabolic steroids are those that people get without a doctor’s prescription.

Some people take legal dietary supplements that have certain steroid hormones also made by the human body. One such drug is dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). The body can turn DHEA into other steroid hormones, including testosterone, estrogen, and cortisol. People use it to try to make their muscles bigger. Whether such products actually work has not been proved. But if you take them in large amounts, they can cause the same side effects as anabolic steroids.
Why do some people abuse anabolic steroids?

Some adults and teens use illegal anabolic steroids to lower body fat, get bigger muscles, and increase strength. They use the drugs because they are seeking to improve how well they play sports or how they look.

The dose of illegal anabolic steroids is 10 to 100 times higher than the dose a doctor prescribes for medical problems. People often use more than one of these illegal drugs at the same time. This is called stacking. Or they may take the drugs in a cycle from no drug to a high dose over a period of weeks to months. This is called pyramiding.

Anabolic steroids may be taken as a pill, as a shot into a muscle, or as a gel or cream rubbed on the skin.
What problems can abusing anabolic steroids cause?

Anabolic steroids can cause serious side effects. Some of these effects can be permanent.

    In men, anabolic steroids can:
        Reduce sperm count.
        Shrink the testicles.
        Cause you not to be able to father children.
        Enlarge the breasts.
    In women, anabolic steroids can:
        Increase body hair.
        Make skin rough.
        Decrease breast size.
        Enlarge the clitoris.
        Deepen the voice.
    In both men and women, anabolic steroids can cause:
        Bone growth to stop before it is complete in a teen. The teen may not reach his or her full adult height.
        A heart attack or stroke, even in a very young person.
        High blood pressure.
        Higher levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and lower levels of good cholesterol (HDL).
        Liver disease and possibly liver cancer. The chance of these problems is higher when steroids are taken as a pill.
        Oily skin and acne.
        Male-pattern hair loss.
        Skin infections that can become severe if the drug was tainted with bacteria.
        Irritability, rage, uncontrolled high energy (mania), or false beliefs (delusions).

People who abuse anabolic steroids can have withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking them. Symptoms include having mood swings, being extremely tired, having no desire to eat, and craving steroids.
How is anabolic steroid abuse diagnosed?

A doctor can often spot a person who is abusing anabolic steroids when that person walks through the door. This is because the medicine makes muscles unusually large. Your doctor may also ask questions about your fitness activities and what kinds of dietary supplements and other substances you use. The doctor may do a physical exam and order urine and blood tests.
How is it treated?

Treatment for abuse of anabolic steroids has not been studied much. Doctors usually advise:

    Treatment in a program that includes medicines for withdrawal symptoms and other health problems.
    Treatment in a hospital, if withdrawal symptoms are severe.
    Individual or family counseling.

Treatment for Low Sperm Count

A man is diagnosed of suffering from low sperm count when less than 20 million spermatozoa are present in a milliliter of seminal liquid and a series of medical tests are performed in order to establish that. The condition can be caused by a lot of factors, among which testicle injuries, smoking and a stressful routine are the most known. Although the sufferers have fewer chances to become father, numerous methods of treatment for low sperm count are available, helping them to overcome this problem.

Here is a list with the five best known treatments.

Hormone-based Medicines

Hormone-based medicines are prescribed when the problem comes as a consequence of a hormonal imbalance. The body secretes insufficient or too many hormones that play an important role in helping many internal organs, including the reproductive system, to function properly. Steroids help the secretions to be restored to normal levels, improving the quantity, quality and motility of the semen. However, besides benefits, they can also have side effects, so it is best to follow treatment based on them under strict medical supervision.

Surgery

Surgery is also used as a method of treatment for low sperm count, when the problem is caused by an inflammation of a blood vessel that irrigates the testicles. Obstructed veins can also lead to low sperm count, and a surgical procedure is usually required in order to correct the dysfunction.

Oral or Injectable Antibiotics

Identifying the cause of this problem is the best way to treat it, but, sometimes, doctors need to look elsewhere in order to find the origins of low sperm count. When this problem is caused by the presence of another infection in the body, the administration of oral or injectable antibiotics can solve it in a relatively short period of time.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been used for millennia in the traditional Chinese medicine as a method of treatment for many ailments including low sperm count. It has no side effects and the patient does not experience any pain or discomfort when the needles are stuck in the energy points.

Herbal Extracts and Teas

Herbal extracts and teas are also used as cures for this problem. Horny goat weed brings about an increase in the sperm quantity and motility by improving blood flow in the genital area. On the other hand, Tribulus terrestris helps the body to secrete a greater amount of testosterone, a hormone that influences the quality of the seminal material. Ginseng, mucuna pruriens, salabmisri and maca are other herbs with great effects in treating low sperm count.

Testosterone Boost No Help in Erectile Dysfunction

Preliminary data shows that testosterone supplementation failed to improve mild to moderate erectile dysfunction.

Testosterone supplementation failed to improve outcomes among elderly men with mild to moderate erectile dysfunction, even though testosterone levels were improved, researchers said here.

The Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) scores showed no differences if the men in the study were treated with testosterone 25 mg a day, testosterone 50 mg a day, or placebo, said Lauren W. Roth, MD, from the University of Colorado in Denver.

The SHIM scale ranges from 1-25, with a score of 1-7 reflecting severe erectile dysfunction and a score of 22-25 indicating no erectile dysfunction. The study participants were about 65-years-old, and more than 90 percent were Caucasian.

In her oral presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Roth said that men did experience an increase in testosterone levels at six months and one year for both the low-dose and high-dose treatment when compared with baseline levels. But that change did not translate into better sexual improvement for the men.

Transdermal testosterone did improve testosterone levels to a normal range. But SHIM scores did not improve.

Erectile dysfunction is not just a problem of low testosterone. It amazing that men with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other factors that impact erectile function will perceive that it is low testosterone that is causing their erectile dysfunction. Maybe 10 percent to 15 percent of men with erectile dysfunction can be helped with testosterone supplementation.

The Male Infertility Causes and Treatment

Causes of Male Infertility

• Varicocele

• Infections :                                                                                                      
• a. acute : smallpox, mumps, other viral infections                                       
• b. chronic : TB, leprosy, prostatitis

• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Idiopathic - cause unknown

• Injury                                                                                                              a. direct : testicular or pelvic trauma, heat, irradiation                                b. indirect : radiotherapy, chemotherapy, environmental toxins, drugs, marijuana, tobacco, alcohol

• Undescended testes (cryptorchidism)
• Previous surgery : inguinal, scrotal, retroperitoneal, bladder neck, vasectomy
• Obstructions : congenital (aplasia), vasectomy, post-infective
• Systemic illnesses esp. hepatic, renal
• Immunologic : infection, obstruction
• Ejaculatory disturbances
• Spinal cord lesions
• Genetic, endocrine & familial disorders : Klinefelter's syndrome, Young's syndrome, cystic fibrosis, adrenal hyperplasia
• Sexual dysfunctions

Sometimes, in spite of the most meticulous search, no obvious cause can be found for the infertility. This group, known as the idiopathic infertility group, constitutes a large percentage.


TREATMENT

Treatment of male infertility is difficult and sometimes frustrating. Immediate results are hard to produce and persistence with therapy is required.

The following modalities of treatment are generally employed.

1. Medical treatment
This consists of the administration of certain drugs to improve seminal quality. Clomiphene citrate, mesterolone, tamoxifen, gonadotropin injections, antibiotics, steroids etc. are commonly used.

2. Surgical treatment
Microsurgery in progressObstructions in the sperm conduction pathway, varicoceles, undescended testes etc. can be treated by operation.

Modern microsurgical techniques are of great help. Even patients who have undergone a vasectomy in the past can have their vasectomy reversed and the tubes recanalised successfully using microsurgery.

3. Assisted reproduction
In many cases, neither medicines nor operations are of help. In such cases, an attempt is made in the reproductive laboratory to improve semen quality and facilitate the penetration of the sperm into the ovum. This includes sperm washing/capacitation, intra-uterine insemination (IUI), gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT), in vitro fertilisation (IVF), and micro-manipulation (ICSI).

Microsurgery and assisted reproduction require considerable training, skill and infrastructure.

Despite the availability of so many treatment modalities, some patients remain incurable and no treatment, cheap or expensive, can improve their fertility prospects. One then has no alternative but to recommend an AID (donor insemination) or adoption.

What Is Male Infertility?

Approximately 10% of all couples will face infertility problems while trying to conceive, with male infertility being the cause of almost half of those cases. A couple is considered to be infertile after they have tried unsuccessfully for a year or more to get pregnant. A diagnosis of male infertility can be devastating, but there are several treatments and options available for couple to help them to conceive.

There are dozens of reasons a man may be experiencing infertility. Hormone disorders, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), infections, and trauma to the reproductive organs are among the most common causes for male infertility. Sexual dysfunction, an obstruction, medications, testicular cancer, or other medical conditions, such as sickle cell anemia, can also lead to fertility problems.

When a couple is facing infertility problems, a fertility specialist will check for male infertility first. Male infertility is easier to test for and diagnose; infertility in women is usually more complicated. The first thing s doctor will do is to ask the patient about his medical and sexual history, and then the doctor will perform a physical exam. If everything is normal, the doctor will then schedule the male for semen analysis, which will check the man's sperm for several different properties. The most obvious thing to check for is the number of normal, moving sperm, referred to as concentration, morphology and motility. Some medical conditions can cause a man to produce irregular or deformed sperm that are not capable of fertilizing an egg.

Sperm analysis will also check for the concentration of the semen. If the sperm is physically normal, infertility may be caused by the man's seminal fluid being too thick or thin, preventing the sperm from reaching the egg. The volume of ejaculate will be measured as well. Another medical test for male infertility requires doctors to use a hamster egg to test if the sperm is able to penetrate the walls of a female's egg.

Male infertility is usually treated in one of three ways. The first way is through drug therapy. There are many medications that can boost sperm count, and fight infections that can compromise the health of the sperm. Some conditions, such as obstructions, can be solved through surgery.

The final way is through assisted reproduction. Sperm can be gathered from the man using one of several techniques. The sperm may then be treated, through a wash or a centrifuge, reducing the number of abnormal sperm. After this, the sperm will be combined with an egg through in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). IVF involves combining healthy sperm and several eggs together in a Petri dish, and letting the sperm naturally fertilize the egg. In ICSI, the sperm is inserted into the egg with a needle. This method is usually used when a man's sperm is immobile and unable to fertilize an egg on its own.

There are many treatment options available for men who suffer from infertility. Couples who have been actively trying to conceive for over a year should schedule an appointment with their doctor to discuss the possibility of a fertility problem. Couples who are over the age of 30 should see their doctor after six months of unsuccessful attempts, because most women begin to lose their chance of getting pregnant in their mid-to-late thirties. An early diagnosis gives the couple a better chance of starting a family before the woman begins menopause.