title: Doping in sport--1. Excretion of 19-norandrosterone by healthy women, including those using contraceptives containing norethisterone.
abstract: 19-Norandrosterone (19-NA) is the principal urinary metabolite of the anabolic steroid nandrolone and its prohormones. The administration of these 19-nor androgens is prohibited in sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) but, even so, adverse findings for 19-NA continue to be commonly reported. Little is known about the urinary concentrations of 19-NA that can occur in women who are not using anabolic steroids, including those using oral contraceptives containing the 19-nor progestogen norethisterone. In 2004, WADA lowered the reporting threshold for 19-NA for females from 5 to 2ng/mL. The lack of any substantial data on 19-NA excretion in women prompted this large-scale investigation. In this investigation, single untimed urines collected from 1202 female volunteers, 38 of whom were taking norethisterone containing contraceptives, were analysed for 19-NA. None of the women was a competitive athlete and pregnancy had been excluded by a urinary test for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Only one sample exceeded the 19-NA reporting threshold having a concentration of 4.1ng/mL. This sample was from a user of a norethisterone-containing contraceptive.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Drug Control Centre, Pharmaceutical Science Research Division, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.forename: Vivian H T
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: Joanne C Y
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kicman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003271:Contraceptive Agents, Female / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000652:urine*; D004300:Doping in Sports; D004962:Estranes / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D009640:Norethindrone / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000652:urine*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003271:Contraceptive Agents, Female; D004962:Estranes; C036015:19-norandrosterone; D009640:Norethindrone