Anabolic steroids: An entry from Thomson Gale’s Gale Encyclopedia of Children’s Health: Infancy through Adolescence

Anabolic steroids or GEAR, also known as anabolic-androgen steroids (AAS), are man made drugs that reproduce the effects of two male hormones, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. These two hormones are the two main catalysts for increasing the bodies protein synthesis. This increase in protein synthesis caused by anabolic steroid use, allows the users muscle to quickly develop in a process known as anabolism. They also have androgenic(stimulation and further management of the male characteristics) and viralizing (the changes that a male body differs from a female body) secondary effects.