People generally know so little about PEDs when in these discussions.
Testosterone is a PED. It’s actually THE PED. Most everything else is a compound based off the molecular structure of testosterone. Most synthetic steroids like dianabol, anavar, winstrol, etc. are run side by side with testosterone. Testosterone alone can still provide a wealth of benefits. We produce it naturally. You can inject it to raise your levels. It assists with putting on muscle, or not losing muscle over a long season, metabolism, recovery, aggression, etc. The way to test for it? Check someone’s testosterone levels. But it’s the same way you or I would get checked for low testosterone and these are young professional athletes who are expected to have higher testosterone to begin with. The test is simply how much testosterone is in your system and the range that’s considered normal is fairly large (300-900). Testosterone levels also fluctuate between day and night and day to day, as well as with age, depending on what you’re eating, how hard you’re training, etc.
You could inject body builder type amounts (anywhere from 500-1000mg weekly) and have an insanely high amount of testosterone which would make the results of a blood test a lot more obvious (results in the 1200+ range). But you could also take testosterone replacement therapy level injections, say 100-200mg a week, and have a much less suspicious testosterone level. Normally a man whose testosterone levels read below 300 will get TRT to bring him back up into the 400-500 range, and as all the “low T” commercials mention, this is supposed to improve energy, metabolism, etc and make you “feel young again”. The same applies when you boost a normal healthy 500 level up to 800; more energy, better recovery, easier muscle gain, easier fat loss and metabolism, etc.
A hockey player who is in the 500+ range could boost himself to 750+ using this method, still be considered in the “normal” range and not raise any red flags in a blood test, because he’s just augmenting a hormone that already exists naturally in the body. And without knowing a regular baseline for that player to compare it, no one would be able to prove they’re injecting testosterone, nor really even raise an eyebrow at an 850 test level in a young professional athlete. Additionally, even if they had a “baseline” for that player, once again diet, training, age, etc. all factor into changes in testosterone anyway. And since it’s believable that many professional athletes would come back with results naturally on the higher end of normal it’s entirely feasible for a player to intelligently and discreetly boost performance, recovery and aggression using smaller doses of testosterone and not pop positive for a PED ever.
Most common side effects of injecting additional testosterone into your system? They’re very minor, which makes it easy to run. Back acne and possible male pattern baldness regardless of age, in men with DHT sensitivity (one of the byproducts of extra test). Hello Getzlaf, Shattenkirk, Stepan, etc. Not accusing them of being PED users, mostly poking fun, I’ve had plenty of friends who lost their hair at unfortunate ages, but that’s one of the most noticeable side effects, so it’s always possible some of the bad hairlines we see could be related. Certainly not a definitive sign.
