Examining The Cream (testosterone-epitestosterone): The Designer Steroid Created to Cheat Drug Tests and Its Role in Sports Doping Scandals

The Cream refers to an undetectable steroid preparation surreptitiously provided to athletes by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) at the center of major sports doping scandals in the early 2000s.

Formulated by BALCO’s founder Victor Conte, this cream contained a precise ratio of testosterone and epitestosterone designed to cheat doping tests that screen for elevated testosterone levels through the testosterone-epitestosterone ratio.

By adding inactive epitestosterone, The Cream kept the T/E ratio within allowablelimits, enabling athletes to use supraphysiological doses of testosterone for performance enhancement while testing negative.

The scheme successfully allowed BALCO athletes to secretly boost muscle growth, strength, power, and recovery through testosterone while evading suspicion from drug screenings dependent on the T/E ratio.

Prominent athletes across baseball, track and field, and other sports reportedly used The Cream extensively to gain competitive advantages through chemical assistance while publicly maintaining a facade of being “clean” athletes.

While The Cream provided a clandestine edge for tested athletes, it offered no benefit over traditional steroids for non-tested physique athletes. For them, higher testosterone dosages were a better choice for maximizing gains versus just masking drug use.

The eventual uncovering of BALCO’s covert doping operations exposed the rampant inefficiencies in anti-doping policies at the time, spurring evolutions in drug screening over the subsequent decades to close loopholes.

In summary, while The Cream allowed a period of unchecked cheating through pioneering steroid engineering, anti-doping authorities eventually adapted testing to counter its duplicity, upholding the integrity of drug-free competition.