Testicular

Some scientific studies indicate that the gam in performance obtained through the use of anabolic steroids is small This may be a case though in which the anecdotal evidence of the athletes may be closer to the mark than the scientific studies The scientific studies are done under ethical conditions in which patients are treated with prescription level doses of steroids A 240 pound offensive tackle ( too small by todays standards) may take several ana bolic steroids at a time at 10-20 times their pre scribed doses in order to weigh the 280 pounds he (or his coach) feels is necessary The price athletes pay for gams in size and strength can be enormous This price includes emotional costs (friendships lost because of heightened aggressiveness) sterility testicular atro phy (the testes cease to function once the body starts to obtain a sufficient supply of testosterone like steroids from outside) and increased risk of prema ture death from liver cancer or heart disease... 

Toxicity studies on trifluoroethanol show acute oral LD q, 240 mg/kg acute dermal LD q, 1680 mg/kg and acute inhalation L(ct) Q, 4600 ppmh. Long-term subchronic inhalation exposure to 50—150 ppm of the alcohol has caused testicular depression in male rats, but no effects were noted at the 10 ppm level (32). Although the significance of the latter observations for human safety is unknown, it is recommended that continuous exposure to greater than 5 ppm or skin contact with it be avoided. 

Rats exposed to 500 ppm of bromotrifluoroethylene died following a 4-h exposure. Since the monomer decomposes in air, the level of exposure to it was actually lower. The effects in rats of repeated exposure over a two-week period have been studied. At 50 ppm, the animals lost weight and renal damage was noted although the effect was reversible. Very mild testicular damage was seen at 50 but not 10 ppm. The amount of urinary duotide excreted suggested that extensive metaboHsm was occurring (34). 

Eadier reports of a link between testicular cancer and DMF exposure have not been corroborated ia a study of 4000 Du Pont employees (34). Very recendy, inhalation studies ia mice and rats have shown no oncogenic effect from DMF (35). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (lARC) has concluded that evidence associating DMF with cancer ia animals is "iaadequate," but has classified DMF as "possibly carciaogenic to humans" (Group 2B) (36). 

The reproductive toxicity of some phthalate esters has been reviewed by the Commission of the European Communities (45). This review concludes that testicular atrophy is the most sensitive indicator of reproductive impairment and that the rat is the most sensitive species. 

Reproductive Toxicity. No data are available that impHcate either hexavalent or trivalent chromium compounds as reproductive toxins, unless exposure is by way of injection. The observed teratogenic effects of sodium dichromate(VI), chromic acid, and chromium (HI) chloride, adininistered by injection, as measured by dose-response relationships are close to the amount that would be lethal to the embryo, a common trait of many compounds (111). Reported teratogenic studies on hamsters (117,118), the mouse (119—121), and rabbits (122) have shown increased incidence of cleft palate, no effect, and testicular degeneration, respectively. Although the exposures for these experiments were provided by injections, in the final study (122) oral, inhalation, and dermal routes were also tried, and no testicular degeneration was found by these paths. 

It is also clear that it is difficult to relate cause and effect to any specific chemical since, with the exception of point source effluents, many waterways contain a multitude of chemicals, of which the active endocrine disruptor may not be that which has been measured in the water or tissue. For such reasons, many studies have used in vitro experiments in which isolated tissue, either from a control animal or one captured in a polluted water system, is exposed to a single pollutant in the laboratory. Such experiments have shown significant disruption to testicular activity by a wide range of xenobiotics, including cadmium, lindane, DDT, cythion, hexadrin and PCBs. ... 

However, incidence of testicular cancer is increasing in American blacks and Japansese, both of whom have a low incidence of testis cancer. " Extrapolation of the epidemiological trends suggests that the incidence rate of testis cancer will continue to double every 15-25 years. 

It is widely accepted that men with testicular cancer have a higher incidence of abnormalities associated with impaired spermatogenesis, both in the cancerous testis but also in the contralateral testis. Men diagnosed as having testicular cancer often have very poor semen quality, with sperm concentrations of less than 10 million/ml compared to healthy men with > 50 million/ml." It is thought that gonadal function is abnormal even before testicular cancer develops, ... 

In order to discuss the biological mechanisms involved in the aetiology of genital tract malformations, testicular cancer and lowered sperm counts, some knowledge of the processes involved in the differentiation and development of the male reproductive tract and determination of normal testicular function is required. An early embryo has the potential to develop either a male or a female... 

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