The History of Synthetic Testosterone

Abstract

The era of increasingly sophisticated hormonal treatments led to the synthesis of testosterone in 1935 the primary male hormone produced by the testicles. Since the 1940s countless athletes and bodybuilders have taken testosterone and its primary derivatives to increase muscle mass and to intensify training. In the past 25 years this practice has been maintained by a $1 billion international black market. Scientists are investigating reported short-term side effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids such as increased aggression impaired liver function and reproductive problems. The discovery of testosterone was preceded by a long history of organ use for medicinal purposes based on the principle of similia similibus (treating an organ with itself) dating back to ancient times. Two Austrian researchers (Oskar Zoth and Fritz Pregl) in 1923 were the first to study whether a testicular extract could increase muscle strength and improve athletic performance. Other researchers and experimenters included the Russian chemist Alexander von Poehl (spermine and oxygen transport in 1891) the American Leo L. Stanley (testicle transplantation in 1918) the French-Russian Serge Voronoff (monkey gland transplants during the 1920s) Adolf Butenandt (derived androsterone from urine in 1931) Karoly Gyula David and Ernst Laqueur (isolation of crystalline testosterone in 1935) and Leopold Ruzicka and A. Wettstein (artificial preparation of testosterone in 1935). By 1937 clinical trials in humans employed injections of testosterone propionate as well as oral doses of methyl testosterone. Treatment of women with testosterone has been used for hormone-dependent breast tumors as well as for intensifying the female libido but side effects also appeared (husky voice hair growth). The discovery in the 1940s that testosterone could facilitate the growth of muscle tissue led to its increasing use by West Coast bodybuilders and later by other athletes. An estimated 1 million people take steroids in the US. Clinical uses include hypogonadism growth stimulation in puberty treatment of trauma male fertility regulation and retardation of the aging process.