2023-09-12 18:04:05
Hormone of male sexuality and fertility, it is a product banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but frequently used by athletes to improve their performance.
2018 world champion Paul Pogba tested positive for testosterone after a match between Udine and Juventus Turin on August 20, according to the Italian press. An androgenic hormone of male sexuality and fertility, testosterone in its exogenous form is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). But this substance is frequently used by athletes to improve their performance.
Testosterone, naturally present in the body, is a sex hormone from the steroid family. Secreted 90% by the testicles and 10% by the adrenal glands, it plays a key role in everyone’s well-being, by having an impact on mood and stress: “It is the tone hormone physical, psychological, and of course sexual,” explains Antoine Faix, urologist andrologist in Montpellier.
Produced during puberty, testosterone allows the development of sexual characteristics, such as hair growth, genitals and voice change. It is necessary for the production of sperm and the appearance of libido.
In people with dysfunction of the sexual glands, a testosterone dosage may be recommended. “Medically, we generally prescribe it when we lack it, so most often to men of a certain age or to young men who have had testicular cancer, who are diabetic,” emphasizes Doctor Faix. Much more rarely, testosterone is used as a one-time contraceptive in combination with another hormone.
What is the role of testosterone in sport?
Although this hormone is naturally secreted by the body, it poses a problem in the sporting world when administered exogenously. Among its many virtues, one is particularly appreciated by athletes: it promotes the development of muscle mass. It is therefore an anabolic, which stimulates the production of proteins. Even more, taking testosterone “also helps accelerate muscle recovery,” according to Michel Audran, professor emeritus in biophysics at the University of Montpellier, former director of the French anti-doping laboratory. A psychostimulating substance, it also increases motivation and the desire to succeed.
It is “one of the products most used by athletes who do drugs,” says Michel Audran, because it is “very difficult to detect.” “It is complicated to differentiate between that produced by the body and that provided by a drug,” he says. However, there are several types of doping control: blood test, saliva or urine test, etc. But the most effective method remains hair analysis.
If he was provisionally suspended, it remains to be determined whether the football player took testosterone intentionally. This counter-analysis is therefore crucial for the future of the highest paid athlete in Serie A.
In the event of positive results, Paul Pogba could be suspended for up to four years and Juventus would be ready to terminate his contract. The Italian sports doctor, Enrico Castellaci, even advances Play. It that the substance may have been prescribed “by mistake, through ointments or gels which are then considered harmless. What would be serious is if he was advised to take it. There may be an unwillingness to take it, and it is precisely this point, if the counter-analysis does not save Pogba, which will be very important.
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