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The Truth About Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Some athletes are attracted to performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), believing the drugs will improve their game. In some ways, they can enhance performance. But they come with dangerous side effects. The negative effects they can have on your body are the reason PEDs are prohibited by most sports organizations.

The long-term effects of PEDs, including anabolic steroids, beta-blockers, and growth hormones, haven’t been extensively studied. But in the short term, depending on the drug, they have shown to cause:

• Irreversible change in voice
• Infertility
• Enlargement of sex organs, or in other instances, a shrinkage of sex organs
• Baldness
• Increased body hair
• Problems with the liver, heart, blood pressure
• Aggressive behavior
• Stunted growth
• Weight gain

Source: USADA