Content provided in partnership with

Steroids: one teen's tale: Efrain Marrero wanted to bulk up for football. After his death, at 19, steroids are called the culprit

New York Times Upfront, Sept 19, 2005 by Duff Wilson

Brenda Marrero came upon her son Efrain surfing the Internet one day, last October at their home in Vacaville, a town in Northern California. When Efrain hid what was on the screen, she asked what he had been looking at. He turned and said he wanted to tell her something: He was using steroids.

She called her husband, Frank, and they told Efrain he needed to stop, because steroids are dangerous.

"But Barry Bonds does it, his parents remember Efrain saying.

"That doesn't make it right," his father responded.

To please his parents, Efrain handed over a dozen pink pills, a vial of liquid, and two syringes. His mother flushed the pills and kept the vial. Efrain, who played football, promised to stop using steroids. It was a promise that no one doubts he kept.

Most Popular Articles in Health: Fuel your workout: exercisers who eat before they work out have more energy ...; Soothe a dry, itchy scalp: 5 easy expert solutions; Cocktails and calories: Beer, wine and liquor calories can really add up. ...; The sour truth about apple cider vinegar - evaluation of therapeutic use; The, six best supplements you've never heard of: these secret weapons can ...; More »

Less than a month later, Brenda Marrero found Efrain in a bedroom at home, a bullet in his head, a .22-caliber pistol in his hand. He left no explanation for his suicide. He had no history of depression or mental illness. He was 19.

"We didn't see it coming," his mother tearfully recalls. "We were absolutely devastated."

In the weeks that followed, the Marreros found out that their son had been surrounded by steroids; his sister's boyfriend, co-workers at the mall, and weight lifters at his gym used steroids. And when Efrain went off to college, a number of players on the football team he joined were using steroids.

FINDING AN EXPLANATION

Not until they learned what steroid withdrawal can do to a teenager's hormones did the Marreros find a plausible explanation for Efrain s suicide: The family, their doctor, and their friends think that Efrain fell into an emotional abyss from having suddenly stopped using steroids. Two previous suicides of young athletes had been attributed by their parents to steroid use: Rob Garibaldi, 24, of Petaluma, Calif., in 2002, and Taylor Hooton, 17, of Piano, Tex., in 2003. The athletes, both baseball players, died shortly after they stopped using steroids.

Though a definitive link between steroids and suicide has not been proved, medical experts say there is persuasive anecdotal evidence and a reasonable biological explanation for a connection. When someone takes steroids, the body suppresses its natural production of testosterone. After a person stops, it takes weeks or months to produce normal levels again, leaving some but not all people vulnerable to profound mood changes.

A SERIOUS PROBLEM

The three suicides, while extreme, have underscored for many medical experts the risks linked to withdrawal from steroids and shined a light on the use of steroids among young athletes. In a 2004 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2.4 percent of 10th-graders and 3.4 percent of 12th-graders said they had used steroids at least once.

In addition to their effects on mood, steroids can also cause serious physical and medical problems, ranging from tendon weakness and severe acne to high blood pressure and even cancer, medical experts say; and steroids can stunt growth in adolescents.

Efrain's suicide occurred in a region where the steroids scandal involving the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a sports-nutrition center, has dominated news coverage for nearly two years. In San Francisco, about 50 miles southwest of Vacaville, federal prosecutors brought steroid distribution charges against four men who were accused of providing steroids to elite athletes. In July, three of the men, including Barry Bonds's personal trainer, pleaded guilty, while a fourth pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. (Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger who is one of baseball's greatest home-run hitters, reportedly told a grand jury investigating the case that he may have unknowingly taken steroids, thinking they were legal health supplements, a claim that many sports commentators have found difficult to believe.)

In Sacramento, 35 miles east of Vacaville, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted that he used steroids during his career as a bodybuilder, though he says young people should never take steroids.

The Marreros moved to Vacaville when Efrain was 10. Frank Marrero is a pilot for United Airlines and an Air Force Reserve colonel. The family picked Vacaville for the quality of life and the schools. "Everything we ever did," he says, "we did for our kids."

Efrain, who lived with his father, mother, a younger sister, and baby brother in a four-bedroom house, turned 14 in 1998, the year Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs. Pretty soon he asked his parents if he could use creatine, an amino acid that helps to build muscle mass. Creatine, he observed, was sold in health-food stores, and a lot of teenagers used it. But his parents said no.

Efrain was always one of the biggest boys in his class, and he grew to be 6 feet 1 inch and 270 pounds. He played offensive line for four years at Vacaville High School and at one point talked to his friends about androstenedione (a hormone supplement that acts like a steroid in the body), which was used by McGwire. "He said it's a legal steroid you can buy, and you rub it on and it makes your fat go away," says Rob Cullinan, Efrain's best friend. "He was always big and fast, but he always wanted an edge."

Steroids: one teen's tale: Efrain Marrero wanted to bulk up for football. After his death, at 19, steroids are called the culprit

New York Times Upfront, Sept 19, 2005 by Duff Wilson

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Technology

Most Popular Articles in Health

Most Popular Publications in Health