ABSTRACT
Anabolic steroids exert multiple actions affecting both the body’s organs and its physiology. The results of AS used in animal studies comprise the basis for most of the conclusions concerning the development of side-effects in humans. Rats subjected to levels of AS equivalent to illicit AS use in humans had a dramatically reduced life expectancy (Bronson and Matherne, 1997). Autopsy revealed hepatocytic carcinomas, peliosis hepatis, mesenchymal kidney tumours, lymphosarcomas, pulmonary adenomas and pronounced left ventricular myocardial hypertrophy associated with stenosis of the left atrio-ventricular valve in rats. However, this form of clinical data does not always have significance when applied to humans, as the occurrence of an illness or disease in one species does not mean this will also occur in another.
