Monitoring of endogenous steroids in female serum

Code: R20M01MS

Primarily, the objective of this project is to conduct an exploratory study to monitor the blood steroid profile of women subjects over two menstrual cycles to compare the intra- and inter-individual variability of the blood steroid profile of women subjects during a menstrual cycle. Secondly, transdermal testosterone gel (Androgel 1%, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL) will be administered to all volunteers once. The study will enable the pharmacokinetic study of transdermal testosterone gel in women in addition to its detection and will allow to determine putative differences of steroid metabolism between men and women. Simultaneously, the urinary steroid profile will be monitored to allow comparison of the steroid profile between both matrices. This study should help to develop further the blood steroidal of the ABP and to refine the identification of doping behaviours in females with adequate investigations allowing to define reference values for specific female athletic populations. This study will also allow to lay the foundations for a further untargeted metabolomics project for the discovery of new steroidomic biomarkers for steroid detection in female athletes. The design of the study was modified and extended to three menstrual cycles and the treatment regimen was modified. Instead of a single application, testosterone gel (Tostran 20mg/g, 0.5g applied corresponding to 10mg of testosterone) is applied daily for a menstrual cycle (corresponding to 28 days).