Young athletes see and read news stories about famous athletes, artists and celebrities, who admit to having used performance-enhancing drugs. So it's no surprise that as many as 1 in 20 teenagers reports using steroids to increase muscle mass.
Adolescents use a wide variety of drugs and supplements, including anabolic steroids, to improve their sports performance and physical appearance. Prevalence rates for steroid use generally range between 4% and 12% for male adolescents and between 0.5% and 2% for female adolescents. Steroid use among U.S. teens has been on the rise since the early 1990s, but some groups of teens are using more than others. In 1993, one in 45 high school students admitted to using anabolic steroids.
