Doping In Sport - Resource

I found this when I was going through some files on my computer. This is an excellent article that reveals the "secrets" of the East German Sports Machine. The authors are husband and wife. She was a former East German discus thrower who defected and he is an endochronologist. They were granted access to study the files of the doping program of the former East Germany.
Clinical Chemistry 43: 1262-1279, 1997;
(Clinical Chemistry. 1997;43:1262-1279.)
© 1997 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Doping in Sport Symposium

Hormonal doping and androgenization of athletes: a secret program of the German Democratic Republic government

Werner W. Franke^1,a and Brigitte Berendonk²

¹ Division of Cell Biology/0110, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

² Hölderlin High School, Heidelberg, Germany.
^a Author for correspondence. Fax 49-6221-423404.

Abstract

Several classified documents saved after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1990 describe the promotion by the government of the use of drugs, notably androgenic steroids, in high-performance sports (doping). Top-secret doctoral theses, scientific reports, progress reports of grants, proceedings from symposia of experts, and reports of physicians and scientists who served as unofficial collaborators for the Ministry for State Security ("Stasi") reveal that from 1966 on, hundreds of physicians and scientists, including top-ranking professors, performed doping research and administered prescription drugs as well as unapproved experimental drug preparations. Several thousand athletes were treated with androgens every year, including minors of each sex. Special emphasis was placed on administering androgens to women and adolescent girls because this practice proved to be particularly effective for sports performance. Damaging side effects were recorded, some of which required surgical or medical intervention. In addition, several prominent scientists and sports physicians of the GDR contributed to the development of methods of drug administration that would evade detection by international doping controls.

Key Words: indexing terms: androgenic-anabolic steroids • testosterone • performance-enhancing drugs • abused drugs • sports medicine • urine