By Dr. Gianfranco De Angelis
With the surprising increase in the number of women participating in the various sports competitions at all levels, it was foreseeable that sooner or later doping would appear. It is no longer possible to keep it hidden: even women have discovered doping substances and in particular the use and abuse of anabolic steroids.
From the Bodybuilding.com website, Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia ranked third at the Mister Olympia 2013, the highest international competition in the bodybuilding world
To confirm this, it is sufficient to take a quick look at the various reports of international sports competitions of various sports (see athletics, swimming, bodybuilding, etc.) to immediately understand that those muscular bodies in an unnatural way, that exaggerated muscular definition and performance Sportsmen similar to their male counterparts cannot be the simple result of hard training and strict diet, but they are the obvious result of specially designed chemical programs, which include large doses of anabolic steroids. But even before condemning this unhealthy custom for the serious and inevitable risks involved, we must analyze the problem further upstream to try to find out why the woman decided to modify her traditional physical appearance, established by nature itself, sacrificing all those attributes, those characteristics that have always represented the authentic symbol of femininity, of which it has always been proud and which it has always used as an irreplaceable means of seduction.
In the history of costume, very few events have changed the destiny of women like sport. She had long wanted to change her weak and passive role, dependent on the strength of the man from whom she was traditionally protected, to take a more free and self-sufficient position. But, proclaiming her independence, the woman also had to eliminate a physical and psychological cause that determines her natural weakness by working, in addition to the character, fundamentally on the body, which has always been her most defenseless point. In fact, what guarantee of protection could they be given by those soft but unfortunately poorly potent bodily forms that nature had bestowed on them? The hard training, the participation in the various sports disciplines that were once the exclusive prerogative of men and the extreme performances made the woman independent both from a psychological and physical point of view, so the problem seemed to have found a solution, the woman understood that he could get rid of his own fragility of which she had always been a slave. His enthusiasm, however, suffered a severe blow when he discovered the considerable difficulties with which he had to struggle to obtain the desired results. First of all its genetic and biological characteristic not predisposed for a large and powerful musculature necessary in power sports. To be more explicit it must be emphasized that women can never develop muscles as strong and powerful as male ones because they do not sufficiently possess the indispensable hormones, namely androgens: while the male hormonal system has a testosterone production that varies from 2.5 at 10 mg a day, in women this hormone is very reduced (from about 0.8 to 2.4 mg a day). Everyone knows that testosterone is the main responsible for man's secondary sexual characteristics and has a highly anabolic effect, that is it favors the biological synthesis of proteins, thus favoring the increase of muscular masses and improving post workout recovery. On the contrary the female hormone par excellence estrogen, acts completely differently on the sexual characteristics of the woman, giving those soft shapes (hips curves, breast curves, buttocks, etc.) due to the presence of adipose tissue (the woman produces on average about 30% more fat than man). All this is certainly not the ideal condition to develop a dry and muscular body, so much publicized on the various glossy covers of fashion magazines.
It is therefore quite clear that sport has contributed in a very significant way to modifying female body shapes, shaping and toning them, but within certain limits and these limits already represent an exceptional result. However, for many competitive athletes it was not enough to present themselves in the race in the best possible condition, that is with a perfectly shaped body but still extraordinarily "feminine" (indeed thanks to the wise use of training techniques and work with resistances this femininity was even enhanced ); now that they had discovered the means to gain strength and a powerful physical appearance, they had no intention of stopping in front of the limits set by nature, but intended to overcome them at any cost, even by distorting themselves. At this point it is easier to understand the reason that prompted many agonists to make use of anabolic steroids, since the effect these substances have on them is indescribable and once they have been tried, it is very difficult to go back.
Let's start by saying that a higher level of testosterone in the blood of women allows faster muscle progress, with an increase in muscle mass and reduction of adipose tissue; then, there is an increase in strength, due not only to the increase in muscles, but also to tendons and the skeletal system, thanks to the ability of testosterone to improve calcium synthesis; there is also an increase in resistance due to a higher concentration of hemoglobin in the blood, therefore a higher performance in aerobic sports and a clear improvement in the recovery phase; again, there is a reduction in catabolism and after-effects of fatigue and nervous stress due to intense training; finally, there is an improvement in mental and psychological predisposition to physical effort.
But if even limited doses of anabolic steroids could operate the so-called "miracle" on the performance and physical appearance of an organism that by nature is not a depository of power, precisely because it does not possess the substance that causes it, well those same dosages can also easily trigger disastrous and irreversible side effects, as these are "foreign" substances, therefore not tolerated by the hormonal system. The whole biochemical universe of women, with the use of anabolic steroids, is immediately altered, starting with the endocrine system. The first hormonal system to suffer the consequences is that linked to estrogens, with the consequence alteration that modifies the secondary sexual characteristics; estradiol and estrone are two hormones that exert their function for the balance of the ovaries and other delicate female sexual apparatuses, for which a high level of synthetic androgenic hormones, consequently lowers the production and the level of estrogens with effects easily imaginable. Here, therefore, that an increase in musculature and performance, the woman who uses anabolic substances also develops other exclusive characteristics of man, such as down and a lowering of the tone of the voice; moreover, the features of the face lose their characteristic delicacy becoming more "hard"; to put it in one word, the woman "virilizes". In fact the shapes of the body are modified, the roundness of the hips are eliminated, the breast disappears etc., the volume of the clitoris increases, the menstrual cycles begin to be no longer regular, since the function of the ovaries has certainly been altered. And as if all this were not enough, his mental attitude is changed and his way of thinking and behaving is no longer the usual, driven as it is by a typically "male" mentality (it is an almost metamorphosis).
Women, in my humble opinion, must remain such: nature has established its intangible and immutable rules, trying to respect them is the least a woman can do to stay in harmony with nature. What is the point of sacrificing femininity and all those peculiarities of women on the altar of a sporting victory? Furthermore, what is the point of risking health and organic functions to achieve such questionable aesthetic results? Femininity is an essential trait that all women must take into great consideration.
There is no shadow of a doubt that sport and a balanced diet can only be the high road to follow in order to obtain a toned and attractive body, without sacrificing those shapes and curves which, even with an inattentive eye, are the tangible sign of femininity and beauty of the woman, and that are so dear to the male gender.
