Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) is running rather rampantly through the MMA world, and while some have proven therapeutic-use exemptions that allow them to undergo TRT, others are using that as an excuse to not get suspended once it hits the fan.
Is TRT the beginning of a potential PED problem?
It may be the beginning, but to be honest, it's a wonder how performance-enhancing drugs would only now be seen as a problem when they have been a problem for what seems like forever and a day.
PEDs have been an issue in sports for such a long time — ever since the first athlete to ever test for a banned substance — so this isn't something new for the sports world. Technically, TRT isn't illegal, since some people need it to keep their T/E ratios at the level of a normal human being, but when people use it and somehow manage to elevate their levels to Wolverine-like levels, that's when it becomes an issue. Abusing really any drug that is supposed to help the body to reach a normal level of anything can be a problem in general, but TRT especially is a problem when it is abused.
At the same time though, TRT is most commonly something used whenever one of two things occur.
It can be taken when the body experiences a decline which causes the body to stop producing testosterone, or it can be taken to counteract a case of Hypogonadism, which can sometimes be caused by the use of anabolic steroids, which is referred to as Anabolic Steroid Induced Hypogonadism (ASIH).
That's where the TRT issue can be tricky, because in a sport where everyone appears to fight to the best of their ability, it's tough to point out a steroid like Stanozolol or an unnaturally-produced form of testosterone unless some form of testing is done, and finding these things out is the main reason why many seem to support random drug testing, especially since random drug testing doesn't give the users and abusers much time to cycle the 'roids out of their system.
Perhaps more random drug testing is the answer so that there is no longer an issue with TRT or steroids, but like we said before, steroids are a tricky issue to deal with, and when it comes to TRT, it's quite odd nowadays to talk about someone using TRT when they've never had any steroids in their system to cycle.
There's only one sure way to know though, and if it's not an action that gets taken immediately, TRT might just lead to a full blown PED problem before any of us know it.
