Former Olympic athlete and reality TV star Bruce Jenner’s sex change involves his openly using steroids to become a woman as part of his gender reassignment... and his use of steroids is completely legal! For bodybuilders like you and me, if the feds knew that you were using steroids, they'd kick down your door and arrest you. Read on to find out why you should be totally outraged by Bruce Jenner getting to use steroids to change his sex and become a woman while you’d go to jail for using them.

You'd have to visit Eskimos in the farthest reaches of Alaska to find somebody who hasn't heard about Bruce Jenner's sex change into a woman. The reality TV star has actually given the tabloids some factual news to report over the past few months with his transformation. Everything from what the Kardashians think of Bruce's decision to his plans to keep dating women as Bruce Jenner becomes a woman have been plastered across TMZ and RadarOnline.

I personally have no problem with Bruce Jenner’s sex change nor am I the one to judge what he's into. Okay, I do have a problem with Jenner’s hair, which can only be described as some weird blend of Donald Trump meets Miley Cyrus. But, beyond the awful hair, what I find upsetting - is that Bruce legally juices to change his sex. Sure, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star isn’t stacking Deca and testosterone, but he is using estrogen - a steroid hormone - to become more feminine.

Now, as the director of the world's largest anabolic steroid site, I of course have no qualms with Jenner using estrogen for cosmetic purposes. If the guy wants more breast tissue and feminine features, then he should have every right to use estrogen to accomplish this sex change. However, my dilemma here comes from the fact that it's okay to use estrogen for feminization, yet it's still illegal for men to use anabolic steroids for muscle-building purposes. However women who want a sex change going from female to male, can do just that; they can take testosterone to become more masculine and that too is completely legal.

Anabolic steroids have long been demonized due to their incredible ability to help pack on size and strength while giving athletes an edge over their natural counterparts. Furthermore, steroids are listed as Class III drugs, meaning simple possession of them could land you in jail. So I ask, why can Bruce Jenner use estrogen to make himself more feminine, yet bodybuilders can't use anabolic steroids to reach their maximum anabolic potential - even with the help of a doctor? Is it because the feds love Bruce Jenner's TV show so much? So, I consulted my friend and famed steroid attorney Rick Collins and got some answers

It All goes back to Sports

You wouldn't think that many of the games we played as kids would have such an effect on restricting freedoms as we grow up. But unfortunately, the U.S. government, MLB, NFL and NCAA push to keep sports clean by keeping steroids illegal.

"Possessing anabolic steroids, including testosterone, without a valid prescription for a legitimate medical purpose has been a federal crime since 1991," says Collins, the nation's foremost legal authority on steroids. "If you get caught, you can even go to prison for illegally distributing controlled substances. The underlying rationale for these steroid policies has to do with sports. Ever since the Ben Johnson doping scandal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the American public has seen steroids as the tool of cheaters."

Steroid Madness

Aside from associating steroids with cheating in sports, it also doesn't help that the public has been force-fed a number of lies in garbage movies, TV shows and news stories reinforcing the idea that roids lead to uncontrolled aggression and disastrous health consequences. And at the same time, my efforts to present a different perspective are almost always suppressed my mainstream media – my YouTube account was canceled, my FaceBook page was banned and so was my Google+ page.

"The mainstream media treats steroids pretty much the way “Reefer Madness” treated marijuana," Collins explains. "It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of non-medical steroid users aren’t competitive athletes at all; they’re ordinary men who lift weights to look better in a T-shirt. These men are cosmetic users, plain and simple. Still, they can go to jail for possessing steroids such as testosterone for recreational bodybuilding, and so can doctors who prescribe or dispense steroids to them."

Here's where Jenner is in the Right

Going back to my original point about questioning the difference between Jenner using estrogen for a gender transformation versus using anabolic steroids for cosmetic purposes, Collins offers a detailed explanation on how the law views the difference.

"Now, contrast this with physicians who prescribe testosterone to women who want to look more masculine," he says. "While the primary intent is to effect a cosmetic change, just like with steroids for bodybuilding, this purpose is deemed to be medical in nature as part of the gender reassignment journey. So, while a man seeking a bulked-up physique through steroids for bodybuilding is labeled a cheater and classified as a criminal, a woman seeking a bulked-up physique through steroids for gender reassignment is perfectly legal and acceptable.”

"How about a trans-gender man seeking a less beefy body, such as Bruce Jenner? Well, he needs steroids too, but estrogens, not androgens." Collins adds, "Again, while the primary intent is to effect a cosmetic change, just like with steroids for bodybuilding, this purpose is seen as medical in nature as part of the gender reassignment process.

"So, while a man seeking a bulked-up physique through steroids for bodybuilding is labeled a cheater and classified as a criminal, a man seeking a scaled-down physique through estrogenic steroids for ultimate gender reassignment is legal and acceptable." Collins concludes, "Of course, estrogens do not build muscle or make Olympic sprinters run really fast, so they were never even considered to be classified as controlled substances, so the applicable laws are far more lenient."

Will this Stance Ever Change?

I want to reiterate that I'm certainly not here to admonish using estrogen to become a woman nor question Jenner. The main thing I really question is the long line of jerks that his ultra-curvy step-daughter Kim Kardashian has dated and/or married. The only thing worse than a dating history that includes Nick Lachay, Nick Cannon and Kanye West is the hypocrisy surrounding the steroid laws in the United States.

If a man can use estrogen to become a woman, and a woman can use testosterone to become more manly, then a dude should be able to juice to build a better physique for himself – especially if he does it responsibly and works with a physician. Unfortunately, sports leagues and the government know that loosening the grip on steroid laws opens up a whole new debate on athletes being able to use steroids and their having easier access to them. And as everybody knows, the worst tragedy in our world today is not cancer or world hunger, but rather a guy with chemically-enhanced muscles looking really good at the beach with his shirt off.

So, until all pro sports start being played by robots, perhaps a century or more in the future, I don’t see using steroids for bodybuilding as becoming any more legal or acceptable – while using steroids for gender transformation will remain just as legal as it is today.

What are your thoughts? Here's a link to discuss Bruce Jenner's legal use of steroids vs. your illegal use of steroids on the EliteFitness.com forums.