Performance Enhancing Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Performance Enhancing Drugs - Essay Example Performance enhancing drug tests are stricter for male than for female athletes. There is a list of substances banned in males only. Differences between the reporting level for men and women are also acknowledged. The confusion over the nandrolone issue is exacerbated by claims that low concentrations of metabolites conferred no performance -enhancing effect and are due to the contamination of supplements. This conclusion from a single untimed urine sample could not be substantiated; the possibility that the result arose from the long-term use by injection of nandrolone may seem unlikely in the present climate of testing but evidence to the contrary had to be unequivocal (Dean, 2000). The number of positive test results has increased dramatically in recent years, but still, researcher admit that differences in male and female constitution prevent laboratories to identify illicit substances. OTC drugs, such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, are relatively less potent and non-selective than other stimulants, hence their availability without prescription. Following Bowers (1997) this lack of selectivity, with a concomitant likelihood of side-effects, especially if used in supratherapeutic doses, makes them less desirable as potential performance -enhancing drugs, since no improvement in performance has been found in the few research studies on these drugs. Another argument is that women may have illnesses that require them to take particular drugs. It indicates an increasing trend in its use as a performance -enhancing drug, since its pharmacological properties are likely to have adverse, rather than positive, effects on performance in most sports. Statistical results prove that women swimmers perform much better than men because of inadequate drug tests and differences between male and female constitution.