What is testosterone | Gazzetta.it

Testosterone positivity in football had been missing for years. This is also why yesterday, as soon as the news about Paul Pogba spread, many people flew to Google trying to understand something more about this prohibited substance. We also tried to clarify, thanks above all to the help of Professor Carlo Tranquilli, sports doctor and professor of “Doping. Prevention and control” at the San Raffaele University of Rome.

1. What is testosterone?

Testosterone is the only anabolic steroid produced naturally by our body.

2. Why is he hired?

Tranquilli explains: “There are no reasons that the official pharmacopoeia justifies for taking testosterone, except for a specific medical prescription for certain pathologies.” However, this cannot apply to an athlete, so the drugs that are included in the list of those prohibited by Wada cannot be taken even if they are potentially useful for health. He will be able to do so only in the presence of demonstrated therapeutic needs, such as proven male hypogonadism from organic causes.

3. What effects does taking testosterone have on the body?

The activation of all metabolic processes connected to anabolic activity related not only to sexual activity. To be clear, it involves first of all the increase in muscle mass, the increase in red blood cells and therefore an improvement in oxygen transport.

4. Does taking testosterone improve sports performance?

A debate has recently opened on the issue, with some experts underlining that the consequences on performance are less than what is believed. Don’t worry, however, he has no doubts, even if he makes an important premise: “In anti-doping it doesn’t matter whether a substance improves sporting performance or not, what matters only is whether it is part of the list of prohibited substances recognized by all athletes. The criteria for which Wada decides whether to include it are different: there is obviously the artificial variation in performance, but there are also concrete health risks, as happens with narcotics. Having said this, testosterone certainly has effects on sports performance, just think to the increase in muscle mass, the consequences on the peripheral receptors of the nervous system and on strength”. It is no coincidence that the main cause of the decrease in strength in the elderly is the lower production of testosterone.

5. Do athletes who take it voluntarily commit a sporting offense?

According to Silvio Garattini, president of the Mario Negri Irccs Pharmacological Research Institute, this is a “very serious unsportsmanlike practice, because with this trick you increase your muscles and power thanks to drugs rather than through training”.

6. Can there be accidental testosterone contamination?

Yes, testosterone can appear in a drug test if, for example, you take supplements that contain pollutants. In the past there have also been cases in which anabolic steroids have been found as contaminants in some free-sale products, even if not in pharmacies but above all in a parallel market.

7. In the case of a physically fragile player like Pogba, recovering from various injuries starting from the meniscus injury in the summer of 2022, can testosterone be used to reduce pain?

Here too, Tranquilli’s opinion leaves no room for interpretation: “Testosterone is not a painkiller, it is an anabolic.”

8. What are the health risks?

Prolonged use of testosterone can have important consequences on the cardiovascular system, also increasing the chances of developing tumors related to increased cell growth. There are also risks related to the sexual sphere: an excess of anabolics can generate a decrease in libido in males because it inhibits its endogenous production.