Fertil Steril. 2010 Nov;94(6):2331.e1-3. Epub 2010 Apr 22.Anabolic steroids purchased on the Internet as a cause of prolonged hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.Pirola I, Cappelli C, Delbarba A, Scalvini T, Agosti B, Assanelli D, Bonetti A, Castellano M.SourceInternal Medicine and Endocrinology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.AbstractOBJECTIVE:To report a case of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism due to the chronic abuse of anabolic steroids purchased over the Internet.DESIGN:Case report.SETTING:Endocrinology unit of the University of Brescia.PATIENT(S):A 34-year-old man.INTERVENTION(S):A single dose (100 μg) of triptorelin (triptorelin test).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):Clinical symptoms, androgen normalization, levels of serum testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone.RESULT(S):Within 1 month, the patient's serum testosterone was in the normal range, and he reported a return to normal energy and libido.CONCLUSION(S):The World Anti-Doping Code has proved to be a very powerful and effective tool in the harmonization of antidoping efforts worldwide, but it is insufficient to combat this illegal phenomenon. To tackle the serious side effects caused by doping we believe that it is necessary to increase monitoring and adopt severe sanctions, particularly with regard to Internet sites.Published by Elsevier Inc.PMID: 20416868
Single dose of triptorelin gets bodybuilder’s hormones going againItalian endocrinologists managed to restore the natural testosterone production of a bodybuilder whose sex hormone production had shut down after 13 years of taking steroids. All they had to do was give the 34-year-old man a single dose of 100 micrograms triptorelin. An article by the researchers, who work at the University of Brescia, was published recently in Fertility & Sterility.The bodybuilder went to a doctor in September 2008 because he was depressed, had no energy and had lost all interest in sex. He told the doctor he’d been using steroids since he was 21.The guy took 10-week courses. Typically he would inject a daily 25 mg nandrolone and 25 mg stanozolol for the first 8 weeks, and follow it with 2 weeks of 50 mg mesterolone daily [say: primo]. The following week he would take 50 mg clomid daily, and for the last week he’d inject himself three times with 2000 IE hCG.Well, that’s what the doctors reported. Probably the man took hCG first and clomid after. What’s more the doses sound very responsible to us. If bodybuilders tell doctors how much steroids they’ve been using, in our experience you need to triple the doses.How many courses the man took each year is also not mentioned in the article.The bodybuilder did jack up his doses from 2005 to 2008. During the 8 weeks that he injected stanozolol and nandrolone, he also started to use boldenone, injecting an average of 50 mg per day for a period of 3 weeks. And that’s where it went wrong, according to the blood tests. The doctors examined the guy in September, but decided to just observe for a few months. A damaged axis often just needs time to recover. But when the doctors examined the bodybuilder’s blood again in January 2009, there had been hardly any improvement.The doctors decided to treat the guy with the GnRH analogue triptorelin. GnRH is a hormone that consists of only 10 amino acids. It is produced in the brain by the hypothalamus and stimulates the production of FSH and LH by the pituitary gland. The hormones travel in the blood to the sex glands, where they get these to produce testosterone.The bodybuilder responded immediately to the hormone treatment. Within several minutes the concentration of LH and FSH in his blood had risen.The doctors saw the bodybuilder 10 days later. His energy had returned and the testosterone concentration in his blood had risen to 7 ng/ml. Another three weeks later, his testosterone level was still normal, and his libido had returned too.Source:Fertil Steril. 2010 Apr 21. [Epub ahead of print].
