Androgen abuse in sports

Androgens remain the most effective and widely abused ergogenic drugs in sport. Although androgen doping has been prohibited for over 3 decades with a ban enforced by mass spectrometric (MS)-based urine testing for synthetic and exogenous natural androgens, attempts continue to develop increasingly complex schemes to circumvent the ban. A prominent recent approach has been the development of designer androgens. Such never-marketed androgens evade detection because mass spectrometry relies on identifying characteristic chemical signatures requiring prior knowledge of chemical structure. Although once known, designer androgens are readily detected and added to the Prohibited List. However, until their structures are elucidated, designer androgens can circumvent the ban on androgen doping. To combat this, in vitro androgen bioassays offer powerful new possibilities for the generic detection of unidentified bioactive androgens, regardless of their chemical structure. Another approach to circumvent the ban on androgen doping has been the development of indirect androgen doping, the use of exogenous drugs to produce a sustained increase in endogenous testosterone (T) production. Apart from estrogen blockers, however, such neuroendocrine active drugs mostly provide only transient increases in blood T. Finally the ban on androgen doping must allow provision for rare athletes with incidental, proven androgen deficiency who require T replacement therapy. The Therapeutic Use Exemption mechanism makes provision for such necessary medical treatment, subject to rigorous criteria for demonstrating a genuine ongoing need for T and monitoring of T dosage. Effective deterrence of sports doping requires novel, increasingly sophisticated detection options calibrated to defeat these challenges, without which fairness in sport is tarnished and the social and health idealization of sporting champions devalued.