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Thu Sep 25, 2008 5:47 pm

 
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Junior Masters Athlete
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 9:55 pm
Posts: 8
Location: Boise, ID

Yes, my questions have been more philosophical than scientific. I wouldn't be surprised if the source of the testosterone is the key in the testing.

As for the WMA ban that may be catching athletes that don't intend to cheat, Discusdoc pointed out in this thread last November that IAAF is unlikely to condone hormone replacement therapy any time soon. Don't know what would start any process to change these rules for WMA, which seems to adopt the IAAF banned substances rules fairly directly. That was definitely one of the thoughts behind my original post: would masters athletes support such a rule change?

Brian



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Fri Sep 26, 2008 3:45 am

 
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Master Masters Athlete
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:24 am
Posts: 202
Location: Utrecht (Netherlands)

One of the things tested to find illegal testosteron is the ratio between testosteron and epitestosteron (that is a successor or predecessor of testosteron, I forgot which, in the hormonal processes in a body). Normally it is about 1:1, when it is 6:1 or higher it is seen as a sign that additional testosteron is taken, so pretty nice that they did not take 2:1. Some have shown 1000:1! I do not know how this works in older athletes who have problems in this process. Maybe there is a clue why taking it as a medicine does not result in over 6:1 or so? And then a TUE could be given?

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regards, Weia



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Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:31 am

 
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Journeyman Masters Athlete
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:55 pm
Posts: 25
Location: North Attleboro, MA

Weia-you are correct with your ratio's. But in urine testing the normal ratio they look for I believe is 2-1 (T-E). In the past, doping athletes would simply take epitestosterone to bring the ratio back into balance. This led to the banning of epitestosterone as a masking agent.

Guess we need a medical/chemical expert to determine if an older athlete with depressed testerone levels would also have depressed epitestosterone levels as well.

I believe the urine test only measures the ratio, and can't distinguish between normal or synthetic testosterone levels. I would guess that a blood test will be necessary to distinguish between normal or synthetic agents.

In younger athletes it's assumed that they will have normal testosterone levels. In older athletes, the normal level can drop, leading to other medical problems as stated in the previous posts.

In theory, I would agree with the previous posts, that if an older athlete took medically prescribed testosterone to raise his T levels to normal, that would not be cheating. On the other hand, if an older athlete with normal T levels took testosterone to gain an advantage, that would be cheating.



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