Athletes Look for Brawn : Physician Warns Against Growth Hormone Abuse

Short kids can grow to normal height with regular injections of growth hormone, and a Medical College of Virginia professor says the substance has potential for abuse by athletes seeking greater brawn.

Growth hormone therapy for slow-growing children was born in 1962, and its real growth spurt began with the marketing of a synthetic version in 1985.

Although the vastly increased availability was good news for many, “the bad news is the potential for abusing growth hormone is greater than ever,” according to Dr. Paul Kaplowitz of the Medical College of Virginia.

Some adult athletes are trying to obtain growth hormones because the substance can work like a steroid but cannot be detected in Olympics-style drug tests, he said.

Kaplowitz, an associate professor of pediatrics at the college’s Children’s Medical Center, said, “There are some people out there who firmly believe growth hormone injections will improve athletic performance. The basis for that is a growth hormone is an anabolic agent. It helps build muscles at the expense of fat.”

Although he has not seen a study that proves it, the thing that “makes it more appealing to athletes is that anabolic steroids are different enough in structure that you can’t tell from a urine test if someone is using an anabolic steroid.

“If you were taking growth hormone, you are taking a product that’s essentially identical to what the body is normally making, and therefore a simple urine test will not detect that you are taking it,” he continued. “It probably doesn’t work as well as . . . steroids, but it is theoretically undetectable by usual methods. That’s why some athletes are trying to get a hold of it.”

When it comes to children, the rule for growth hormone therapy to increase height is the earlier the better because by the time a child finishes puberty, “hormone treatments are completely ineffective,” Kaplowitz said.

“By the time it is clear someone has real athletic potential, they are usually well into puberty, and their final stature is fairly well determined by that time,” Kaplowitz said. “Starting a child at 13 or 14, even in massive doses, would probably make little difference.”

Although jokes abound about chemically produced athletes, the question for Kaplowitz and others in the field is whether such treatments are ethical.

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“Most pediatric endocrinologists . . . would take the position it is not ethical to take a child that is normal and expose them to potential risks for the purpose of making them tall,” Kaplowitz said.

Pharmaceutical companies are making growth hormones available only to doctors who specialize in the care of slow-growing children.

“I think that’s a good policy,” Kaplowitz said. “It ensures that the rare unscrupulous physician will not try to take advantage of some of these people who desperately want growth hormones to improve athletic performance.”