Abuse of growth hormone (GH) in sport is evidenced by customs and police, and more recently through testing in anti-doping laboratories. The popularity of GH among cheaters contrasts to the difficulty to prove performance-enhancing effects in controlled studies. Earlier results from replacement therapy in GH deficient adults indicated effects on muscle strength, which were not confirmed in meta-analyses. Even less evidence is available from healthy, trained adults. Obviously, it is impossible to mimic doses used by dopers in controlled studies. Changes in body composition induced by GH lipolytic actions could be helpful in some disciplines. Biochemical detection of doping with recombinant GH remained impossible for decades because of the short half-life in circulation and the similarity of pharmaceutical preparations to endogenous GH. The “marker method” uses changes in GH dependent biomarkers with longer half-lives, and some athletes have been banned because concentrations of IGF-I or P-III-P (a marker of bone and collagen turnover) were grossly elevated. High inter- and intra-individual variability of the biomarkers remains problematic. The “isoform-method” detects changes in molecular isoforms of GH occurring after administration of recombinant GH. This consists of the 22 kD isoform only, while the pituitary secretes a wide spectrum of GH isoforms. A respective change in circulating GH isoforms can be measured by specific assays. Window of detection is limited, but targeted out of competition testing continuously detects cheating athletes. Associated sanctions have been upheld in front of the court of arbitration is sports, and the method is widely implemented today.

习俗和警察证明了运动中滥用生长激素（GH），最近在反兴奋剂实验室进行了测试。GH在作弊者中的流行与对照研究难以证明绩效提升的作用形成鲜明对比。GH缺乏的成年人替代疗法的早期结果表明对肌肉力量的影响，但荟萃分析并未证实。健康，训练有素的成年人提供的证据更少。显然，不可能在对照研究中模仿掺杂剂使用的剂量。在某些学科中，GH脂解作用诱导的身体成分变化可能会有所帮助。由于循环半衰期短以及药物制剂与内源性GH的相似性，用重组GH进行掺杂的生化检测仍无法进行数十年。“标记法”使用具有较长半衰期的GH依赖性生物标记物的变化，并且由于IGF-I或P-III-P（骨和胶原蛋白转换的标记）的浓度显着升高，一些运动员已被禁止。生物标记的个体间和个体内的高变异性仍然是有问题的。“同工型方法”检测施用重组GH后发生的GH分子同工型的变化。它仅由22 kD同工型组成，而垂体分泌广泛的GH同工型。循环GH同工型的各自变化可以通过特定的测定来测量。检测的窗口是有限的，但是有针对性的非竞赛测试可以连续检测到作弊的运动员。相关的制裁在体育法庭上得到了维持，该方法在今天得到了广泛实施。