-Mike- wrote:
Hormone therapy is a regular medical practice for a wide range of populations and very often more active people will notice the effects more than others. Lifetime fitness is all about making financially sound business partnerships and hormone therapy is a booming business among older active people. Seems like a match made in heaven. The doses that are administered are small enough that no serious performance effects would be noticed anyways. You would really have to be running some serious cycles that include way more than testosterone.
One guy i road race with is on testosterone therapy because his workouts were wiping him out and left him ineffective at work. He is late 30's and very fit, found out his T levels were extremely low in addition to several other hormonal issues.
He is not winning anymore races than normal and his power numbers are the same, but he can function at work after a hard morning workout or not sleep all weekend after a hard ride. Testosterone alone is not a huge performance enhancer, its you drugs like winny, clen, decca, masteron etc combined with testosterone + insulin + EPO + beta blockers + painkillers that will make a difference. One drug alone is fairly useless, in particular with anabolic steroid use as they need to be stacked, cycled, and then you also have to watch natural estrogen production so that then has to be controlled. In the end it is a mess and a lot of work to get it all right. Your local podium finisher or cat 3 cyclist getting some T injections is not going to instantly become superman.
I'm sorry but this is bullshit. It sounds like your friend has a lot of stress at work/works hard and that's a stress on the body. Just because it's "work stress" doesn't give him, or anyone, a free pass to dope. You imply that he's at the front of the pack by mentioning "winning". If I lost a race to him and found out he was supplementing with testosterone because he had a lot of stress in his life I'd be pissed. My testosterone is at the lower end of a normal range for someone my age (has tested below normal in the past). Could it be caused by work stress? Maybe. But I don't say "hey give me some test and a TUE". I skip nights out with friends to get more sleep and go out of my way to make every meal as clean as I can.
I did a race in Naples last month where I was ~30seconds down the leaders coming off the bike. First time I've ever been that close. I knew I wasn't going to catch anyone because I'm a MOP runner but it was still cool to be that close. Just short of the turnaround I saw the leader and about ten feet behind him two guys in pursuit. The leader had zero pain in his face. Looked like he was just going out for an LSD run. The two guys behind him were dying. Was the leader doping? I have no idea but I can sympathize the anger and frustration people express about the issue. It sucks to think a person might beat you because they poked a needle in their ass or rubbed some cream under their arms, not because they were more committed to the sport.
If you have rules for the sport, follow them.