With the prevalence of so many combat sport athletes on testosterone replacement therapy programs now, or otherwise being prescribed AAS by their physicians, many might point to athletes abusing a loophole in the system to gain an “unfair” advantage.
I think this might account for a large amount of cases however. It is kind of ironic that the sports so often linked with the male hormone are the ones that can very quickly cause an injury to stunt the production of these hormones so necessary for athletic performance.
At the very least the take home message from this is that boxing, kickboxing and MMA should never be taken for granted, and anyone competing in the sports should learn the importance of developing a solid defense - not just for being a better fighter, but for being a fighter who has his health at the end of the day.
TRT gets a LOT of hate from MMA fans (at least), who most times speak out of ignorance, and who don’t know anything about an athlete’s condition.
Still, with guys like Todd Duffee qualifying for it, I’m not sure I blame them.
The “unfair advantage” argument is porous though. In MMA, no one gets tested in between fights and everyone can use. Leading up to fights an individual could cycle off during camp, or use epitestosterone/test mixtures to beat the piss test. TRT users with exemptions get three blood tests during camp. If anything, they get LESS of an advantage due to scrutiny.
Sorry to go off topic like that, I know this thread is about pit-gland damage. I just get exposed to so much TRT hate by being an MMA fan on the internet that it’s become a pet peeve of mine.
Not off topic at all run, i appreciate the comments, I intended for this thread to be about TRT usage as much as it is about brain injury.
I’ve seen some bizarre shit from MMA blog writing douchbags. A few guys going as far as to suggest that TRT should be banned completely from the sport. I don’t care how prevalent AAS use becomes or even is at the current time, banning TRT requiring athletes is about the dumbest thing I’ve heard. Oh what’s that MMA fan? Hendo is one of your favorite fighters? yeah good luck seeing him compete with that dumb ass ruling.
A lot of fans seem to NOT differentiate between a guy who’s “juicing” and one on TRT.
Illegal AAS use is a problem, don’t get me wrong, but if you really want to “clean up the sport”, like said blog writing douchebags keep saying, regulation is more effective than administering a blanket ban and a piss test (albeit more expensive).
I think most fans who know better are more concerned with who’s using and really needs it versus the guy who found a doctor willing to write a script.
[quote]rundymc wrote:
In MMA, no one gets tested in between fights and everyone can use. [/quote]
Overeem.
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
[quote]rundymc wrote:
In MMA, no one gets tested in between fights and everyone can use. [/quote]
Overeem. [/quote]
Overeem is an exceptional case, the only reason they tested him is because he failed to attend the mandatory testing previously.
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
[quote]rundymc wrote:
In MMA, no one gets tested in between fights and everyone can use. [/quote]
Overeem. [/quote]
What Aussie said. But if you’re referring to the random test that got him, it was the first of its kind. It was also administered 2 months from the fight IIRC. The commissions don’t (or have yet to) test licensed fighters in the large span of time between fights.
Neat primer on drug testing and hypogonadism causes.
