History of Steroids

Steroids are types of organic compounds containing rings of carbon that include various hormones, vitamins and alkaloids. These compounds have a notorious history for their use as performance-enhancing drugs, but they date further back than many people realize.

Ancient steroids

There is documentation that suggests that steroids were used in ancient Greece. The use of pure testosterone was prevalent in the original Olympic Games. They were consumed by people via raw animal testicles.

New Age science

In the late 1840s, Arnold Adolph Berthold was studying the absence of testosterone in modified cockerels in Germany. He removed their testicles and implanted them into their stomachs. He reported capillary formation within the implanted areas.

Modern discoveries

In 1931, German chemist Adolf Butenandt purified the hormone androstenone by extracting it from urine. Years later, German chemist Leopold Ruzicka synthesized hormones for humans. Together these chemists synthesized the first batch of synthetic testosterone, which lead to them receiving the Nobel Prize in 1939. In the 1940s, steroids were used by the Soviet Union for sports, until Dr. Ziegler, a U.S. Olympic physician, developed a synthetic known as methandrostenolone. Ciba Pharmaceuticals was the first company to market steroids to the public, with Dianabol as the first FDA approved steroid in 1958.

Drug testing

The 1960s saw steroid usage at its peak. It was in 1972 that the IOC began drug testing at the Olympic Games and banning steroids due to the unfair advantage they conferred. The Germans developed hormones that lasted for three days and others that were used in all levels of Olympic competition. In the 1990s, the Germans were finally thwarted and thus began harsh drug testing and their infamous reputation.

Steroid usage started very early in history and lead to some interesting discoveries. However, their misuse and misunderstood effects continue to raise eyebrows today.