Gay and bisexual boys are more likely to abuse steroids

By Will Boggs MD NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Gay and bisexual boys are almost six times as likely as their heterosexual peers to misuse steroids, according to a new study. “What was most surprising to us was the magnitude of the disparities that emerged between sexual minority and heterosexual boys,” Aaron J. Blashill from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston told Reuters Health in an email. Upwards of 5 percent of adolescent boys use anabolic-androgenic steroids to enhance strength, athletic performance, and muscle size, but nobody had studied the association between sexual orientation and steroid abuse before, Blashill and his colleague Steven A. Safren noted. The researchers were concerned that gay and bisexual boys might be more likely to misuse steroids because of other factors that have been tied to steroid and other substance abuse.