Confirm Biosciences has released a new home anabolic steroid testing kit this month. CNBC’s Sports Biz with Darren Rovell thinks it would be useful for parents to test their children for steroid use. Athletes may found it useful and convenient to monitor the elimination of banned substances from their bodies.
STEROIDCONFIRM’ enables sports trainers, employers and parents to test individuals who they suspect may be abusing steroids. Simply take a urine specimen at home, in the workplace or at school, and mail to our laboratory using the pre-paid shipping pak. You have the option to perform a confidential test (no personal information is required) or a test with a Chain of Custody…
Using Liquid Chromatograph Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), the most sophisticated and sensitive technology available for the steroid testing community, STEROIDCONFIRM’ can accurately quantify substances well below the cut-off levels. Each specimen is tested directly with this instrument – there is no screening process.
Confirm Biosciences claims the SteroidConfirm steroid testing kit is comparable to the steroid panels used by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This may be misleading.
STEROIDCONFIRM’ is comparable to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) panels, detecting a full list of prescription androgenic anabolic steroids, prohormones, designer anabolic steroids, essential masking agents, anti-estrogen agents and diuretics.
But the SteroidConfirm description only claims to identify 11 anabolic steroids, 5 metabolites, and 1 beta-2 agonist. This doesn’t come close to approaching the number of anabolic steroids included in the WADA doping tests. SteroidConfirm advertises the detection of the following 17 substances (mostly steroids and their metabolites).
» Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG)
» Boldenone (Equipoise)
» Hydroxyboldenone (Metabolite)
» Clostebol (Steranobol)
» Clenbuterol
» Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
» Testosterone
» Epitestosterone
» Oxymesterone (Oranabol)
» Oxandrolone (Anavar)
» Methyloxandrolone (Metabolite)
» Stanozolol (Winstrol)
» Hydroxystanozolol (Metabolite)
» Flouxymesterone (Halotestin)
» 6B-Hydroxyflouxymesterone (Metabolite)
» Androsterone
» 19-Norandrosterone (Metabolite)
Several popular anabolic steroids are apparently not included in the testing. These include Anadrol (oxymetholone), Dianabol (methandrostenolone), Trenbolone, Masteron (drostanolone propionate), Primobolan (methenolone), and Proviron (mesterolone).
Deca Durabolin (nandrolone decanoate) is not included either; however, I think a positive result for the metabolite 19-norandrosterone will effectively detect the use of any nandrolone based steroids (Deca, Laurabolin, Dynabolan, Anadur, etc).
It is possible that some of the steroids I mentioned will be detected by discovery of some of the 5 metabolites that SteroidConfirm does test for. But it would seem that the Confirm Biosciences marketing department would be certain to mention this if it were true.
Otherwise, I think suggesting that the steroid testing kit is comparable to WADA panels is a bit of a stretch. The steroid testing kit is not nearly as comprehensive at the company would like you and your $145 believe.
(Hat tip to Steroid Nation for link to CNBC story.)
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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