Tuesday, February 14, 2012
My Population: Steroid Abusers
After doing some reading and research on my population, my assumptions have change a little bit. For one, I didn't know that sometimes steroids are prescribed to people for lung conditions and other things. I originally thought people just took them to gain muscle. I now really would like to know what causes someone to become an addict. I also want to know if steroid addicts use steroids just to gain muscle mass or if someone who is prescribed them can become addicted from taking them for other health related reasons. So far I've found that steroid abuse is most common in people over 18 and it usually affects men more than woman. Though, steroid abuse is growing rapidly among young women.
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Hi Whitney,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your update on your assumptions and new information about steroid abuse.
Why are women abusing steroids? Is it for the same reason as why men abuse steroids?
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
Professor Wexelbaum,
ReplyDeleteafter researching why woman are abusing steroids, I found some similarities and some differences in the reasons men do. As far as similarities, I found that several females who abuse steroids have muscle dysmorphia. This is a disorder where people think they are not muscular enough and think that they are too skinny, fat, or small. A different reason why woman abuse steroids compared to men is that they feel they need to protect themselves. In a study involving 75 female subjects, 10 of the woman confirmed that being raped as their reason for using androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) to increase muscle strength and size (Gruber, Pope; 1999). In most of these cases, the rape victims believed they would never be able to trust a man again and turned their focus to body building activities. One other reason I found that woman abuse steroids is to become manlier. Steroids are synthetic derivatives of the male hormone testosterone, and are used to make men, manlier. Often, transgender woman choose to take steroids to obtain secondary-sexual characteristics including a deeper voice and increased facial hair.
That is very interesting! I know that women who have been abused or raped sometimes work out and take self defense courses, but I did not know that they felt that steroids were necessary for their well-being. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhat I am going to say now may be confusing, but just to let you know...
Biological women who want to live as men and go through the hormone treatment and surgery to become men are called female to male (F to M) transsexuals, or transmen.
Transgender women are actually men who want to live as women. They may or may not go through hormone therapy and surgery. They
Looking forward to hearing more about your research!
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum