Dresden University scientists, who say that cheating with testosterone in a wide number of sports has been underestimated, have devised an anti-doping test that can detect the hormone identified with male characteristics for much longer periods after an act of cheating has occurred.
Experts at the Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden's Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik III und Zentrum für Innere Medizin, including its endocrinology department, have developed a new and "indirect" testing method that they claim proves doping with testosterone and other male hormones, working with the hormone Inhibin B, much longer after cheating has occurred than has been the case until now.
Dr Andreas Barthel states that Inhibin B shows a high sensitivity to artificial testosterone and does not rid itself of tell-tale signs for much longer than has been the case in traditional tests for testosterone and related substances. He describes Inhibin B as having a "long-term doping memory" compared to current "short-term testing".
"The abuse of testosterone in a wide number of sports has been underestimated until now, especially in areas of fitness and bodybuilding," said Dr. Barthel, an endocrinology expert at Dresden University medical centre. He and Prof. Dr. Stefan R. Bornstein, manager of the Dresden centre, publish their findings in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine in a study that considers the effects of doping on young bodybuilders and how Inhibin B can be used as a more efficient detector for testosterone abuse.
In a warning to athletes, coaches and others tempted to dabble, Dr Barthel notes the dangers to health of taking artificial testosterone and related substances that may be "contaminated", come from unauthorised labs and carry a serious risk of infection that can result in death.
The new testing method also indicates "long-term and permanent malfunction of the testicles after doping with testosterone", according to Dr Barthel.
The German states of Saxony and Thuringia have long been a leading player in hormone research, and in GDR days, experts at Leipzig and Kreischa (home to the shamed IOC-accredited lab), near Dresden, and Jena (home to Jenpharm, developers of Oral Turinabol at the heart of State Plan 14:25 systematic doping) were chained to the yoke of cheating politicians who wanted to show the world that the socialist state had found a model for the world. Instead, it showed how massive abuse of young athletes can take place right under the noses of the IOC and other sports governing bodies.
A splendid moment, then, to see experts in Saxony fighting the good fight.
