Don Hooton, of the Taylor Hooton Foundation and Dr. Michael Scally, M.D., of HPT/Axis Inc., are both urging the medical community to recognize the condition of Anabolic Steroid Induced Hypogonadism (ASIH) and move towards the acceptance of a medical treatment for hypogonadism after androgen cessation. The recent A&E documentary about Jose Canseco’s decision to stop using anabolic steroids has highlighted the problem of androgen induced hypogonadism that can occur after the discontinuation of anabolic steroids.
Dr. Michael Scally has been a long-time critic of the medical establishment’s failure to address the adverse side effects of hypogonadism in steroid users. He is troubled by the lack of medical initiatives seeking to eliminate, shorten, or minimize the period of anabolic-steroid induced hypogonadism. Dr. Scally released a statement expressing his concern about Jose Canseco’s unsuccessful attempts to find effective treatment for ASIH in response to the A&E special on Canseco.
After treating well over one thousand patients for anabolic steroid induced hypogonadism (ASIH), I am concerned about the recent news reports on Mr. Canseco’s attempt to find treatment. From my long and extensive experience with these patents, both due to prescription and nonprescription anabolic steroids, little if anything is typically offered in the way of meaningful therapy. These individuals come to physicians for help and assistance only to find themselves being treated with nothing or the very drug that caused the condition, an anabolic steroid “ testosterone. For a number of reasons, these treatments have no support within the published literature yet physicians with good intentions continue to prescribe them. Frightening to almost all nonprescription anabolic steroid users, which includes Mr. Canseco, is they know these treatments are fruitless and place them in the untenable position of knowing more than the treating physician.
Don Hooton believes that his son, Taylor Hooton, suffered from anabolic steroid induced hypogonadism when well-meaning, but uninformed, professionals took Taylor off of anabolic steroids without addressing the hypogonadism. Mr. Hooton was disturbed by his subsequent discovery of the lack of recommended or accepted treatment(s) for ASIH within the medical community. Jose Canseco’s experience with ASIH is a painful reminder of the inability of the medical establishment to offer help and guidance to doctors treating steroid users.
“Canseco’s experience is but one more highly visible example of the serious physical and emotional problems that users experience when withdrawing from anabolic steroid use,” responded Don Hooton. “Further, his inability to find help from the medical community provides more proof that our family doctors are ill prepared to deal with the results of this current epidemic of steroid use. As more and more people decide to get themselves off of this dangerous drug, this problem will only get worse! Much worse.”
In the five years since Taylor’s death, Don Hooton has been at the forefront of efforts to educate adolescents about the unacceptable risks that anabolic steroids pose to them. Hooton has been frustrated that various medical experts from around the country have been unable to offer any medical solutions for the treating the the medical sequelae of ASIH. Thus, it was no surprise that family physicians were unprepared to deal with (adolescent) steroid use.
Dr. Michael Scally, at significant professional risk, has provided medical care for individuals using anabolic steroids since 1995 with a particular clinical/research emphasis on returning his patients to normal physiology after the discontinuation of anabolic steroids. Dr. Scally has presented his medical protocol for the treatment of Anabolic Steroid Induced Hypogonadism before the Endocrine Society, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American College of Sports Medicine, and International Workshop on Adverse Drug Reactions and Lipodystrophy in HIV.
For the greater part of 10 years I have found that the medical treatment provided for the condition termed anabolic steroid induced hypogonadism (ASIH), is nonexistent or ignored by the great majority of medical professionals. As predicted since my entry into this field in 1995 more and more cases of ASIH would appear due to this negligence.
Ironically, the one physician dedicated to addressing the problem of ASIH was selectively targeted for professional discipline in the aftermath of the Taylor Hooton tragedy. The lack of “political support for his chosen area of practice” resulted in Dr. Michael Scally’s professional decertification. Undeterred, Dr. Scally continued to work on developing medical therapies for the normalization, functionality, and restoration of hypothalamic pituitary testicular axis (HPTA) following anabolic steroid cessation. While no longer able to directly care for patients, he continues to consult with physicians and assist in the treatment of ASIH.
Dr. Scally was moved by the plight of Jose Canseco and has reached out to Canseco’s physician of record in an effort to work with him on treatment options.
From the news reports and recent A&E special detailing Mr. Canseco’s attempts to return normal testes function I am now concerned for his health and welfare, specifically his life. I have personally treated individuals with severe depression and suicidal ideation. While I do not have the details of Mr. Canseco’s medical history, the information gathered from these public sources is troubling for their similarity to others I have treated. I wish to encourage anyone who has contact with Mr. Canseco to let him know there are treatments that have been successful in the return of testes function after stopping anabolic steroids. Please tell him to contact his physician of record from the A&E special, Brent Michael, M.D. Dr. Michael is in communication with me so that treatment may begin immediately for the possible return of normal testes function.
I had the privilege of introducing Michael Scally to Don Hooton this summer. I only wish that I could have done this while Taylor was still alive. I can only hope that those in the medical community will soon heed calls by Dr. Scally and Mr. Hooton for increased attention to the medical treatment of ASIH.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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