Effects on Future Generation

 

“An athlete’s doping past may well come back to haunt on his or her children.” - playthegame magazine 2008 article written by Kristen Sparre. So what exactly can doping do to an athlete’s child? We will touch on 2 main points—higher chances of miscarriages and sicknesses like allergies and skin problems.

 

Miscarriages

 

In an interview carried out by Dr. Spitzer, he found out that having children turned out to be a very big problem for the former athletes who used to dope. Among the athletes interviewed, 15 babies were lost during pregnancy and 3 were still unborn. It was later found that the risk of miscarriages and stillborn was 32 times higher than the average population in Germany. This shows how drugs could affect the chances of getting a child and such aftereffects cannot be removed once it has been done.

 

Child Handicaps

 

Among the 69 children of the doping athletes who survived, many struggle with various physical handicaps such as skin diseases, asthma, allergies, crippled arms, legs, feet and many had metabolic problems. It was also found out that children whose mother used to dope suffer more handicaps than father who used to dope even though if either the father or the mother was a doper, the child would most probably have handicaps. With all these handicaps, imagine the lives of the children when they grow up unable to play outdoor sports and activities and who is the cause for all that. It is their parents responsible.

 

Effects on Future Generation