Female Doping: Observations From a Data Lake Study in the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Finland
May 2023
in “
BMC Women's Health
”
TLDR Many women who have used performance-enhancing drugs in Finland show high rates of mental health and substance use issues, and most have normal red blood cell counts.
The study analyzed medical records of 39 female patients with a history of doping use in Finland. The most commonly used doping agents were anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS). The study found high rates of psychiatric and substance use disorder (SUD) morbidity (46.2% and 30.8%, respectively). Additionally, 20.5% of patients had received specialized health care for acute poisoning with alcohol or drugs, and 23.1% for bacterial skin infections. Less than 45% of patients with active AAS use had off-range red blood cell parameters. The study concluded that female patients with a history of doping use may exhibit high psychiatric and SUD related morbidity, and most patients with AAS use had red blood cell parameters within-range. Further research is needed to assess these findings' generalizability to primary health care services and the usefulness of hematological parameters as indicators of AAS use in female patients.
