Recruitment to Doping & Help-Seeking Behavior of Eight Female Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) Users

BACKGROUND:

Doping with anabolic androgenic steroids in sports has now developed to a widespread use of these agents among young people outside the sport. This is of major concern to the society. The purpose of the use is mainly for aesthetic reasons and is seen as a male phenomenon. But use also occurs in women where the knowledge is scarce. Our aim was to identify the pattern of doping agents in eight female cases and compare them with similar data from men.

METHODS:

Eight female users were recruited through Anti-Doping Hot-Line, a national telephone counseling service on doping issues during the years 1998-2004. The use was confirmed with urine doping analysis at the Doping Laboratory. The characteristic of use, co-use of narcotics/other doping agents, exercise pattern, adverse-side effects, family history and reason to begin was evaluated.

RESULTS:

The women used on average 1.9 different anabolic androgenic steroids and clenbuterol preparations. Ephedrine and growth hormone were co-used in five and one of the women, respectively. Three women reported co-use of narcotics (cannabis and cocaine). The average duration of anabolic agent use before contacting health care was 58 weeks (range 7-104). Side effects for anabolic androgenic steroids (n = 5) included voice changes, clitoral enlargement, body hair growth, whereas women using clenbuterol (n = 2) reported tachycardia and depression. All women except one had a man in close relationship encouraging them to begin with the doping agents.

CONCLUSIONS:

The use of doping agents in our eight women was different from that in male users. The women used less doping agents and were more prone to contact the health care, at an earlier stage, probably due to the adverse effects. The co-use with ephedrine, growth hormone and cannabis appeared to be in the same range as in men. This is the first study showing that a man in close relationship may motivate a woman to use anabolic agents.

Adverse effects, reported and observed, in women using AAS or clenbuterol

Subject	Self-reported adverse effect	Cholesterol mmol/L	HDL/LDL mmol/L	HB g/L
K1	Clitoral enlargement, voice change, body hair growth, menstrual disorders	4.2	0.7/3.3	135
K2	Tachycardia, depression	3.2	1.2/1.6	125
K3	Tachycardia, depression, mood changes, edema	5.9	1.4/4	NA
K4	Clitoral enlargement, voice change, menstrual disorders, acne, body hair growth	3.8	0.6/3	154
K5	Enlarged clitoris, voice change, body hair growth, acne, menstrual disorder	3.6	1.5/1.9	134
K6	Clitoral enlargement, voice change, menstrual disorders, body hair growth, aggressiveness, acne, memory disturbance, stretch marks, tremor, tachycardia, depression	3.9	1.2/2.1	134
K7	Clitoral enlargement, voice change, menstrual disorders, acne, mood changes, depression, lost hair head	4.3	1.9/2.0	134
K8	Clitoral enlargement, voice change, mood swings, stretch marks, reduced breast	3.2	0.7/2.2	128

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/d6tb1V

By:  Börjesson A1,2, Gårevik N3,4, Dahl ML5,6, Rane A7,8, Ekström L9,10.

• 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. annica.borjesson@ki.se.
• 2Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. annica.borjesson@ki.se.
• 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Nina.Garevik@ki.se.
• 4Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Nina.Garevik@ki.se.
• 5Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Marja-Liisa.Dahl@ki.se.
• 6Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Marja-Liisa.Dahl@ki.se.
• 7Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Anders.Rane@ki.se.
• 8Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Anders.Rane@ki.se.
• 9Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Lena.Ekstrom@ki.se.
• 10Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden. Lena.Ekstrom@ki.se. 
• Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2016 Mar 5;11(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s13011-016-0056-3.

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