Anabolic steroids were first developed in the 1930s and were originally designed as hormone replacement drugs to help treat patients who were not able to produce enough testosterone. However these drugs could also boost male hormone production in healthy people as well, and this had a knock on effect of dramatically increasing muscle density and strength when combined with fitness training, and so athletes began using anabolic steroids in order to improve performance. In the 1950s and 60s anabolic steroids were widely used by a whole range of Olympic athletes, and at this time the incredible effects of these drugs on performance were not fully recognised and it was not until 1970’s that steroids were banned from the Olympics, and a full scale drug testing program was introduced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).