Low Energy Availability and Resistance Training as Confounders on Steroid and Endocrine Profiles in Serum

Code: 23D10YD

Our main purpose of this study is to evaluate non-analytical factors that may influence the markers in the serum steroid profiles and endocrine profiles, which are indirect methods to detect doping with anabolic androgenic steroids and growth hormone, respectively, and which will be integrated into the WADA Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) in 2023. The new knowledge will support the interpretation and evaluation of serum steroid and endocrine profiles, and may increase the sensitivity of the ABP. In project 1, 27 Swedish athletes with symptoms of long-term low energy availability (LEA) and 27 matched controls are invited to participate in a cross-sectional study evaluating the influence of long-term LEA on the serum endocrine and steroid profiles in athletes. It is hypothesized that male and female athletes with long-term LEA expressed as reproductive dysfunction (amenorrhea/low libido) will have suppressed levels of present and new biomarkers in the serum steroid and endocrine profiles compared with male and female athletes with normal reproductive function without symptoms of eating disorders. In project 2, 22 female national level powerlifters and weightlifters in Norway are recruited to evaluate changes in endocrine and steroid profiles in serum after a familiar resistance training session at two different time points (follicular phase and luteal phase) in the menstrual cycle. Based on existing literature, it is hypothesized that present and new serum steroid biomarkers are unaltered and that endocrine biomarkers are increased and more variable immediately after a resistance training session in female weightlifters and powerlifters during either menstrual cycle phases.