Steroid use is very rampant among world class athletes and other people in the body building field. This is why there have been very many boards of regulations coming up in the different sports with means and ways of testing steroid intake among the competitors. There are very many ways of testing steroid use but all the same, you should always take precautions since other tests are not genuine. The effective methods are the most used in regulations sports boards and these are highlighted in this article.

Urinalysis is one of the most common and genuine methods of testing steroid use. This is also ranked as the frequently used method by different boards and has proven great ability to detect steroids. The bodybuilder or any athlete under scrutiny is notified of the test well before the whole process and after he or she has been awarded with the distinction. There are also chances where the rest of athletes who did not receive an award being recalled for a random selection and undergo the test. The testing does not take long, usually, when a person has been recalled, he must show up immediately without a delay. In this whole process, one must urinate infront of a specified official to avoid any foul play or a tampering of the sample collected. After this, the sample has to undergo a division and two samples are stored. The first sample is stored under a very strong and close security, because it will be necessary for later testing. The other has to undergo some chemical analysis. The most usual method of testing this sample is a procedure known as gas chromatography.

Gas chromatography is usually the most common among the test procedures. It is done in a situation where, a chromatograph is used to convert the urine into a gaseous form and this helps to screen out all the traces of the forbidden compounds. The next step involves application of pressure which leads the gas to some very sensitive columns. This is what separates the different substances and turns them to detectable components. If metabolites, which are the breakdown products of steroids, are then detected, the next step will involve the use of a device commonly known as the mass spectrometer usually used in the determination of exactly which types of steroids are in that particular sample.

Liquid chromatography is also another good choice of testing steroid use. This is normally simple and used to replace the use of gas chromatography. However, the method does not involve much different approaches because the columns of chemicals have to be used and the urine directly exposed to them where the different constituents of the urine tend to climb over the columns to varied levels. These steroid components are well separated in the form of color appearance and the distance they travel up and this is what the specialist use to determine the level of steroid use. All these methods however must be done under the scrutiny of specialists and not meant for home use.

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