Objective To review the biological factors that may influence the urinary concentrations of anabolic steroids in doping controls. Topics According to the World Anti-Doping Agency statistics, the use of anabolic steroids represents the main offence carried out by the athletes. The use of substances naturally produced by the body (such as testosterone, nandrolone) makes the interpretation of urine analyses very difficult. Furthermore, many biological factors (age, diet, menstrual cycle, oral contraceptives…) may modify these concentrations. Perspectives The search of indirect markers of doping through the setting of the biological passport offers a powerful alternative to the current anti-doping method. Detecting the presence of the exogenous substances in biological matrices would not be the main purpose in that kind of strategy, but rather the examination of the spectra of biological variances that can be affected by doping substances.
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