Incidental exposure through intimate contact isn’t just limited to kissing. An International Olympic Committee (IOC) testing facility found traces of clostebol metabolites in an athlete’s urine; he claimed that “he was contaminated as a result of sexual intercourse with a woman taking a medication containing clostebol.” This isn’t impossible; in Brazil, clostebol acetate can be found in dermatologic and gynecologic creams. Trofodermin is clostebol acetate formulated for intravaginal administration; it contains 200 mg of clostebol acetate and 200 mg of neomycin sulfate in a 40 g package, and the recommended dose is 5 g once or twice a day.
An IOC-certified laboratory investigated the possibility of inadvertent exposure to clostebol during sexual activity, conducting a study examining exposure to clostebol during sexual intercourse versus direct topical application. In group one, comprising two heterosexual couples, both women received 5 g of the clostebol formulation. These two couples had sexual intercourse for 20 minutes (we should note that it is not clear if vaginal to oral transmission was studied). A second group, comprising two men, applied 200 mg of clostebol acetate topically to their penis for 20 minutes. Urine was collected for the following two days from both groups.
Although both men in the second group had higher amounts of a single, long-term clostebol metabolite, all four men’s urine contained trace amounts of the same clostebol metabolite for up to 15 hours after administration; this trace amount was near the limit of detection, which would have resulted in a positive test, confirming the possibility of inadvertent doping with clostebol via sexual contact.