[firecross]

They are the 69 children of a small part of the drugged generation of sporting stars. But instead of inheriting their parent's athletic ability, the children have been shown to have serious medical issues at rates much higher than that of the general population. Seven have physical deformities and four are mentally handicapped.

Frightening damage from East Germany's systematic doping of two decades of elite and promising sports stars in the 1970s and '80s has emerged in the next generation, according to the German researcher Giselher Spitzer.

A recently published two-year study of 52 Olympic and elite-level former East German athletes, now aged between 40 and 60, conducted by the Germany University, Humboldt, has revealed shocking medical consequences of the forced consumption of anabolic steroids.

Dr Spitzer said in addition to the high rate of physical and mental handicaps in the offspring of the 52 athletes, more than a quarter of the children have allergies and 23 per cent have asthma.

He said the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth in the athletes was a staggering 32 times higher than in the normal German population.

Dr Spitzer told the Play the Game conference in Iceland that the doped athletes, all of whom didn't know the "vitamins" they were forced to take on a daily basis were anabolic steroids, continued to be plagued with serious medical consequences.

He said 38 per cent had severe depression with suicidal tendencies and 32 of the 52 had had therapy for psychiatric issues. Dr Spitzer said the study revealed a quarter of those studied had suffered some form of cancer.

One of the former athletes, the cyclist Uwe Tromer, was part of the study and told German reporters "the retirement age I will no longer reach". He suffered a debilitating stroke a year ago.

Sydney Morning Herald 10/31/07

[dsade]

I'd like to see the full text of this study before commenting.

[brywal312]

I dont get how increasing test levels and speeding ones muscle growth could possible affect one's children later in life. Unless, of course these are women we are talking about and they were taking these "vitamins" during pregnancy or nursing...

[Tiberius]

Originally Posted by brywal312

I dont get how increasing test levels and speeding ones muscle growth could possible affect one's children later in life. Unless, of course these are women we are talking about and they were taking these "vitamins" during pregnancy or nursing...

Women who take androgens can cause permanent, irreversible changes to their sex organs. Some of these changes could theoretically cause problems with pregnancies. It doesn't take a whole lot during pregnancy to screw a kid up for life.

[Mr.50]

Also what seems unclear from the article is whether the athletes were on the drugs when they conceived? It seems they were because none of them knew they were on the drugs thus they would have no reason not to continue with whatever plans they had to conceive. This is drastically different from saying that these athletes used drugs and then at a later date when they were off drugs conceived children with health/birth problems.

Mr.50

[dsade]

Originally Posted by Mr.50

Also what seems unclear from the article is whether the athletes were on the drugs when they conceived? It seems they were because none of them knew they were on the drugs thus they would have no reason not to continue with whatever plans they had to conceive. This is drastically different from saying that these athletes used drugs and then at a later date when they were off drugs conceived children with health/birth problems.

Mr.50

My point exactly...not enough information to make comment or be concerned yet.

[McBurly]

Also, what were the Olympic athletes? Females? Males?

[nelix]

"Sydney Morning Herald" Nuff said. (one of many news paper versions of fox news, owned by rupert, I'd love to see the real study though)

[bioman]

The level of usage forced on these athletes by the East Germans was pretty staggering. The women suffered horribly so I'm not surprised they produced kids with problems.

[azr101]

My kids turned out fine.
I'm no Olympic athlete, but everyone's healthy thank goodness.