NSAC, or Nevada State Athletic Commission, has recently made a move to ban TRT.
Testosterone replacement therapy has been around for people that have lower than normal testosterone levels. It is intended to help raise testosterone levels back to normal levels for those that can’t produce enough, or any. More often it is prescribed to counter effects of a condition called hypogonadism. This condition is simply the lowered or stopped function of the testes in males but also in the ovaries for females. This is the condition that results in lowered levels of testosterone that forces people to undergo TRT. Typically the reason many people have issues with producing their own healthy levels of testosterone is because of past anabolic steroid usage or something similar. In rare cases this has been an issue from early ages when puberty would be expected to occur. With NSAC’s ban on TRT, UFC has followed suit and has banned the usage of TRT in any of their events. This will cause problems with a few fighters that have been given a TUE, therapeutic use exemption.
There are a few fighters in the UFC that have been granted TUEs.
These fighters include Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson, Shane Roller, Frank Mir, Forrest Griffin, and Todd Duke. There could have been another person added to that list of exemptions for upcoming UFC 173. Vitor Belfort was suppose to go up against Chris Weidman for the Middleweight Championship belt on UFC 173. Belfort is very notoriously known for his past steroid use as well as being on testosterone replacement therapy. The plan was to apply for an exemption in time for the fight but with the ban this is no longer an option anymore. It isn’t an option for any of the fighters anymore, at least not in Nevada or in the UFC. All of these fighters are going to need to come off TRT, and for some this can be life changing because of their dependence on it.
[images style=”0″ image=”https://selvabjj.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Chael-Sonnen-UFC1.jpg” width=”608″ align=”center” top_margin=”0″ full_width=”Y”]The need for TRT in professional athletes is very rare and would only occur with previous abuse of steroids.
The ban of TRT can be a good thing for professional combat sports, starting in Nevada and with the UFC. It is up to other state’s commissions to put a TRT ban in effect but since Nevada is such a prominent state with most of the popular events occurring there. It will be a very rough road for the fighters that have been on TRT to make the transition back to being able to produce their own testosterone naturally. This can be very difficult and some people that undergo this may not be able to anymore. Aside from these fighters that have had issues with their testosterone, it will make it very hard for any other athletes or fighters to cause trouble with steroids and TRT. NSAC plan on adding addition testing to make sure that these sports stay clean and fighters don’t get cheated out of fights by unfair advantages.
If you feel for the fighters and athletes that need to be on TRT and disagree with the ban, it is understandable. The NSAC had to understand everything there was to know about why people were on TRT. Typically those going through the therapy have abused steroids in the past and if they had not done that they would not need the replacement therapy in the first place. This will promote clean fights and prevent people from abusing PEDs to gain unfair advantages in sports.
