rhGH Abuse for Sports Performance

Doping is at least as old as the ancient Olympics. Substances taken to improve athletic performance ranged from stimulants to hallucinogenic plant substances, but more recently include anabolic agents. Recombinant human growth hormone, rhGH, is one agent with a relatively short history of use, but few data to unequivocally show that it actually improves performance. However, rhGH has therapeutic use for those GH deficient and the concept of a therapeutic use exemption for those with documented deficiency is outlined along with doping control methods. The athlete's biological passport, a document with all of the analytical data from an athlete, helps in doping control because any one individual will vary for any analyte over a more narrow range than that for a "normal" control population.