UNEXPECTED CASES OF ABNORMAL BLOOD HORMONAL STATUS IN MALE ATHLETES. PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION, PATHOLOGY OR DOPING?

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UNEXPECTED CASES OF ABNORMAL BLOOD HORMONAL STATUS IN MALE ATHLETES. PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION, PATHOLOGY OR DOPING?

Journal Title: Medycyna Sportowa - Year 2007, Vol 23, Issue 6

Abstract

[b]Background.[/b] In competitive athletes blood cortisol concentrations may be higher than the upper physiological limit (633 nmol/L) in response to stressful challenges. Contrary to that, the upper limit (41.6 nmol/L) of blood testosterone (T) is seldom reached by athletes who do not use exogenous testosterone or its derivatives. The paper presents cases of abnormal high plasma cortisol (C) and testosterone (T) levels observed in male athletes, and undertakes an attempt of explanation this phenomenon.[b]Material and methods.[/b] The group of the male athletes practicing the modern pentathlon was regularly studied during the laboratory exercises (running tests) over 6-y period. Total number of observations (subject x term of the study) was 122. Capillary blood was sampled according to the following sequence: morning (M), directly before run (B), after ran, within 3min (+3m), and 30 min of post-test recovery (+30m). Senior weightlifters ware monitored throughout five successive days of five micro cycles, once on February, on April [before European Championships (ECh)], and on July, and twice on August. Morning blood samples were taken day-by day. During the whole examined period total number of observations (day x subject) amounted 160. T and C were determined in plasma by ELISA kit (IBL, GERMANY).[b]Results.[/b] Among pentathlon athletes only one of them, who completed 14 exercise studies was taken into account in this paper. His mean C values during 13 examinations were 596±111, 525±127, 654±131 and 781±187 nmol/L at the time points M, B, +3m and +3m respectively, and mean morning T was 23.8±7.6. These results were significantly differ from those recorded during the one study, when C were 1518, 1380, 1408 and 1435 nmol/L and T were 71.0, 68.4,76.8 and 69.6 nmol/L respectively. A month after morning C and T were somewhat lower (1118, 59.0 nmol/L), and followed by the second month returned to the,, normal” values (290, 26.2 nmol/L). Weightlifters demonstrated huge within-subject variability of T excluding the pre ECh period. 25 cases of T&gt;41.6 nmol/L, and 13 cases of T&lt;8.3 nmol/L were noted among total number of observations (n=160). No hormonal abnormalities were before ECh. The episodes of C&gt;1000 nmol/L were not so frequent (n=7).[b]Conclusions.[/b] Abnormal hormonal patterns in blood were hard to explain based on physiology without additional investigations. The frequency of blood hyperandrogenism are greater among the strength trained athletes in comparison to the endurance trained ones.

Authors and Affiliations

Zbigniew Obmiński

Keywords

trening testosteron kortyzol Sport Training Testosterone Cortisol Sport

EP ID EP55646
DOI -
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