In modern conditions in the international arena, with a noticeably increased competition between the leading sports states, the greatest success is achieved, as a rule, by representatives of the country where the latest achievements in science and technology are best used. The level of modern sports development and the overloads that athletes experience are so high that attempts to stop using drugs altogether reflect the views of not even yesterday, but the day before yesterday. Over the past 15-20 years, the volume and intensity of training and competitive loads have increased by 2-3 times, and representatives of many sports have come close to the limit of the physiological capabilities of the human body. At the same time, the nutritional inferiority of athletes' rations, the need for restorative and preventive measures, the adaptation of the organism to intense physical and psycho-emotional loads, as well as frequent changes in the climatic zone, provides the need for using pharmacological drugs that promote work efficiency and accelerate the recovery processes after significant muscle loads. And in this regard, doping in general and anabolic steroids, in particular, find a very wide application, unfortunately. Anabolic agents are substances whose action is aimed at enhancing anabolic (synthetic) processes in the body, i.e. substances that accelerate the formation and renewal of structural parts of cells, tissues and muscle structures. Representatives of non-Olympic sports and young people who do not sport professionally also use steroid doping. The prevalence of using banned substances and methods remains high, reliable high-precision methods for their detection are absent, and athletes, not knowing the pitfalls of taking anabolic agents, continue to use them massively, which can cause both immediate and remote negative health effects and quality of life. Therefore, each new attempt to explain possible harm to the health and life of the athlete is a step forward in the fight against doping. This article presents a modern classification of anabolic agents and briefly describes the mechanism of their action. Here you can also find a detailed description of side effects after using these forbidden drugs, including those recently synthesized. The accent is made that the use of anabolics can not only lead to the athlete’s deprivation of illegally obtained medals, but also cause immediate and delayed negative influences on the athlete's organism leading to a deterioration in social adaptation, loss of health, and, possibly, life itself.

Keywords: sports, doping, WADA prohibited list, anabolic agents, androgenic anabolic steroids, athlete's health

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