There are very many steroid abusers around the world, but most of them go unnoticed because there is no proper control or test used to determine steroid use. Many regulatory boards have come up with strict regulations and have passed various laws governing steroid use, but the abusers are relentless in their search for steroids within the black market. However, the boards have tried their best and they have come up with several means of testing steroid abusers.

Radio-immunoassay (RIA) is one of the used methods in getting the steroid abusers and employing relevant rules and regulations to punish them. This is one of the oldest methods in steroid use since its development took place in early seventies when most people were not into steroid use. It was a time also when competitions in body building were taking shape and forcing people to turn to steroid for help. By that time, the regulation was seen to work wonders but still there were challenges along the way. The method is employed by the use of some radioactive isotopes and therefore remains very complicated. This is why very few laboratories within the globe can carry out such a test due to its demanding nature. The radioactive isotopes together with some foreign substance antibodies are put together and added to the urine sample.

The results used to determine steroid use is featured in that just incase the sample have no anabolic steroids, the isotopes and antibodies combine together and a filtration from the solution is possible. After the whole process, no radioactivity should be remaining within the sample. On the other hand, when the sample test positive and to be holding anabolic steroids, the opposite happens, these antibodies do not have a good combination with the isotopes and usually after the process, there is some radio activity remaining in the sample. However, the method is archaic and has been replaced by new developments within the technological advances but still is recalled when need arises.

Testosterone ratio is also among the most known steroid test methods. This was a method used to get cheating athletes because they had developed survival tactics of using testosterone replacement some weeks before the steroid test to alter the whole situation. This countermeasure was easily noted by scientists and other drug testers and they had to come up with means of counteracting the situation. This is where the idea of testosterone ratio came about. When testosterone is being broken down, there is a development of a product known as epitestosterone.

There is a normal ratio rated at 1:1 for both the later and the testosterone itself. Due to a prolonged intake of testosterone the amount within the urine is subsequently increased, but for the amount within epitestosterone being excreted that does not change. This ratio is therefore alters and makes it have an abnormal status. This is what the regulation boards used to base with. When the ratio exceeded 6:1, for the two compounds, this led to absolute disqualification and a declaration of substance abuse.

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