Urinary steroid profile in females - the impact of menstrual cycle and emergency contraceptives.

Today's doping tests involving longitudinal monitoring of steroid profiles are difficult in women. Women have more complex hormonal fluctuations than men and commonly take drugs such as hormonal contraceptives that are shown to affect biomarkers used in these doping tests. In this study, we followed six women's urinary steroid profile during one menstrual cycle, including both glucuronides and sulfate conjugated fractions.

Dose-dependent testosterone sensitivity of the steroidal passport and GC-C-IRMS analysis in relation to the UGT2B17 deletion polymorphism.

The newly implemented Steroid Module of the Athlete Biological Passport has improved doping tests for steroids. A biomarker included in this passport is the urinary testosterone glucuronide to epitestosterone glucuronide (T/E) ratio, a ratio greatly affected by a deletion polymorphism in UGT2B17. Suspect urine doping tests are further analyzed with gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) to determine the origin of the androgen.

The impact of genetics and hormonal contraceptives on the steroid profile in female athletes.

The steroid module of the Athlete Biological Passport, the newest innovation in doping testing, is currently being finalized for implementation. Several factors, other than doping, can affect the longitudinal steroid profile. In this study, we investigated the effect of hormonal contraceptives (HC) as well as the effect of three polymorphisms on female steroid profiles in relation to doping controls.