Study Proposes to Examine Football Players, Power Lifters for Possible Long-term Sequelae From Anabolic Steroid Use in 1970s Competition

Abstract

MOST PHYSICIANS agree that athletes who take anabolic steroids may be at risk for later health problems. Now, a proposed case-control study involving former college football players and power lifters who competed between 1970 and 1979 may provide new information. A pilot study involving some 200 former athletes from six schools was completed in April, and the researchers hope to begin the full-scale study this summer. The principal investigators are Charles Yesalis, PhD, professor in the College of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and MAJ James Wright, PhD, chief of the Exercise Science Branch at the Soldier Physical Fitness School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. Yesalis, an epidemiologist, says the short-term effects of steroid use are fairly well-known (changes in blood lipid concentrations and a decrease in sperm production, for example) and that more can be gained by looking at men who have had a latency period