Endocrine Insider
May 1, 2008

On the front page of yesterday’s New York Times, veteran reporter Gina Kolata wrote a compelling story on a recently accepted Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) study on genetics and testosterone doping tests.

The Times reported on how a subset of men (17 out of an original study group of 55) with a specific genetic make-up could use testosterone and still go undetected in standard doping tests used in sports. The original JCEM article revealed that although this variant can appear in any population, it is considerably more common in East Asians than in Swedish Caucasians. According to the Times, “The result is that they may be able to take testosterone with impunity.”

Society members Alvin Matsumoto, MD, of the VA Puget Sound Health Center and Shalender Bhasin, MD, of the Boston University School of Medicine were interviewed for the Times article. Dr. Matsumoto stated, “The specter of doping is out there,” and Dr. Bhasin said that “There may be more than a dozen testosterone-metabolizing enzymes and it may be necessary to examine all of them to see if gene variations affect test results.”

Jenny J. Schulze, PhD, of the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm was lead author of the JCEM study: “Doping Test Results Dependent on Genotype of UGT2B17, the Major Enzyme for Testosterone Glucuronidation.”