Pros:

• Removes the athlete’s ability to cheat the system. This makes steroid use less appealing and removes the performance enhancing drug users from regular play, which defeats the purpose of the steroids.
• Encourages Honest Competition. Few teen athletes will miss the point that regular competition has no negative consequences versus those incurred by steroid use and so teens are less likely to abuse steroids.
• Shows that there are consequences for steroid use. Seeing the testing process and what happens to those that get caught helps reinforce the idea that using performance enhancing drugs are bad for you.

Cons:

• Despite privacy policies, the athlete’s status as a steroid user is made clear by suspension. There are few reasons for a student athlete to be suspended from regular play; being suspended for steroid use can draw attention to that athlete and make their positive tests results clear.

• Most steroid testing programs require special testing and trained test advocates. Steroid testing requires specific monitoring of sample collection and often also lab testing, which takes up to a week to return results. This means more specialized handling and of course a higher overall cost for the schools that use this method to prevent steroid use.

• These tests can be expensive and often lead to only a few positive results. Few students use steroids and so the more involved testing and evaluation that goes into them can be wasted if few positive returns happen to make the cost worth the expenditure.