QUOTABLES: UFC 133's Dennis Hallman defends hormone replacement therapy, decries ignorance of HRT critics

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"You hear guys making statements that are ignorant all the time. And they've never spent 15 minutes looking up or studying hormone replacement. They make statements like that because the media propaganda machine brainwashes the average citizen into thinking steroids are bad. When really, they are medicine. But just like any medicine, if you abuse it, it becomes a drug...

If you're on synthetic hormones, your body can stop producing luteinizing hormones and that's what tells the body naturally to build its own testosterone. If you're on high enough dosages for a long enough time, it's true your body can stop producing that hormone. Even on a low amount of testosterone for a long period of time, your body can naturally shut off.

People say 'This guy got busted for steroid, he's not going to be able to produce his own testosterone now.' We have another steroid called cortisol. People go into the doctor all the time to get cortisone shots. You think that their body stops producing cortisol because they got a cortisone shot? Obviously not. It only takes a simple guy and a simple analogy to figure that out...

My body doesn't produce its own testosterone or cortisol, several hormones. Testosterone is just one of them. So I'm on HRT right now. There's a difference between being on it and abusing it. I take 75 milligrams a week of testosterone. Taking 75 milligrams a week, it's not going to take your level, even if you have normal levels of testosterone, over the limit anyway. That's my situation with HRT. I have to have it to keep my levels from dropping dangerously low. If that happens I would be at risk for diseases like osteoporosis."

-UFC 133's Dennis Hallman talks to Jonathan Snowden at MMANation.com and defends his use of hormone replacement therapy and the treatment as a whole.

Penick's Analysis: There are a lot of different wrinkles to the TRT story that make it a very complicated issue and one that isn't going to be solved by anyone for quite some time. For starters, Hallman is absolutely correct that past steroid use isn't the only determinant of a fighter getting low testosterone and needing treatment.

There's research suggesting that wrestlers enduring weight cutting on a regular basis can find their bodies naturally halting testosterone production. There's research suggesting concussions can have an effect on the pituitary gland and the production of testosterone and other hormones. There's research on any number of other possible causes of low testosterone in what should be healthier young men and athletes.

However, there are inherently a number of issues with allowing a treatment that is ripe for abuse in the sport, even if there are some with completely valid needs for it. When you have fighters like Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt who did not have their diagnoses come from an experienced endocrinologist and then popped for having higher than normal levels of testosterone, that screams impropriety, that screams that they were attempting to use a treatment with real medicinal value for performance enhancing benefits.

If TRT is to be allowed, and there's no movement on it being banned across the board, there needs to be a much more stringent process for a diagnoses and treatment being approved. Then, once a fighter has gone through their tests and through the proper channels, there needs to be continued testing on a random and frequent basis to make sure they're staying within the designated guidelines for what is acceptable. It can't and won't be a simple case of "oh, this is prescribed by a doctor so it's ok."

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