Androgen Abuse among Recreational Athletes

Abstract

Amateur sports are the most popular form of physical activity in the world. While the media places its attention on professional sports leagues or the Olympic Games, for every professional athlete of a certain sport there are thousands of people who play the same sport to meet their personal needs and fitness requirements. 1 In women, regular and adequate levels of physical activity improve the muscular and cardiorespiratory systems, reduce the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, breast cancer and depression, and are essential to weight control. However, in order to look thinner and athletic in a short amount of time, the use of performance enhancing substances has increased significantly. Among these substances, androgens are very attractive. Androgen abuse epidemiology is higher in recreational sportspeople living in Europe, North America (the United States), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), and South America (Brazil), and lower in Africa and Asia. A recent meta-analysis estimated that the lifetime prevalence of performance substance abuse worldwide is of 18.4% among recreational athletes. 2 Androgens are hormones that have anabolic properties, with a direct effect on muscle hypertrophy, increased metabolism, and lipolysis. Testosterone is a 19-carbon steroid, and is the most potent endogenous androgen. Anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) are synthetic compounds that resemble the natural hormone testosterone. 3 Some athletes use AASs continuously, but others try to minimize their possible adverse effects through different patterns of use, as in the following: 4

Annual banned‐substance review: Analytical approaches in human sports drug testing 2019/2020

“…AAS can affect users on various levels, ranging from muscle-tissue physiological aspects where alterations of structural proteins are reported, 36 increased aggressiveness associated with violent behavior, 37 to severe cardiovascular and hepatic health issues [38][39][40][41][42] with presumably causal coherence to fatalities. 43 And yet, AAS appear to remain popular amongst recreational athletes [44][45][46] and elite athletes as supported by WADA's annually published anti-doping testing figures. 47 Consequently, much effort was invested also during the past 12 months into improving test methods concerning AAS (and anabolic agents in general), aiming at enhanced initial testing procedures (ITPs) as well as further insights into the drugs' metabolism that, consequently, allow for optimized selection of target analytes in routine sports drug testing programs.…”