yoyomama wrote:
Until just a few years ago, most athletes did not see thyroid medicine as cheating. They were led to believe that they had a legitimate medical condition by endocrinologists. Recovery for each athlete is different and I completely understand that after receiving levothyroxine they saw improved recovery. Most must have believed that this was the way "normal" people felt and that now they were "normal". Some certainly wanted it because others had it. I don't know which camp Jenny was in. But the Propublica stuff made it clear that workouts and other exercise induced phenomena were timed to cause symptoms and influence test results which would make the diagnoses pass scrutiny so some coaches knew the drill and probably were themselves coached by doctors on how to convince squeamish athletes to accept them (and how to induce the symptoms).
I do not know how to get athletes to be less accepting of gray areas and the "us versus them" mentality that so many coaches employ (even at the high school level) insulates them from their peers (competitors) with whom they might fruitfully compare notes on these issues.
The fact remains that many non-athletes do need this kind of therapy and athletes are a subset of the population.
I think this is an accurate assessment of the slippery slope of using thyroid meds. I'll wager that Jenny is still on them.