Some doubt pitcher Edinson Volquez's explanation for drug
Gary Wadler, a board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, has difficulty believing athletes are taking drugs to enhance their chances of having kids, as Volquez intimated in a prepared statement after receiving a 50-game suspension from Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance.
Instead, fertility pills frequently are used by athletes who are on steroids or coming off a steroid cycle, Wadler says, trying to create testosterone.
"I don't think it would be something inadvertent," Wadler said. "It's not a very effective drug for fertility. Testicles shrivel with steroid use, and this is used to get testicles back to normal. If it was (to have children), he would have requested a TUE (therapeutic use exemption)."
There were 108 players who received exemptions last year, Major League Baseball said in December, two of them for low levels of testosterone.
MLB is not permitted to publicly release which drug caused the positive test.
"It's sad when any player feels that he needs to take a performance-enhancing substance to gain an edge," MLB President Bob DuPuy told the Associated Press.
Volquez is recovering from August 2009 Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow. But his suspension begins today, which means he'll still be rehabilitating his injured elbow when he's eligible for reinstatement June 15.
Volquez said in his statement he used a substance designed to help impregnate his wife.
"Although I understand that I must accept responsibility for this mistake and have chosen not to challenge my suspension," Volquez said, "I want to assure everyone that this was an isolated incident involving my genuine effort to treat a common medical issue.
"I was not trying in any way to gain an advantage in my baseball career."
Volquez, who will lose $133,743 in pay during the suspension, still will be permitted to work out at the Reds' spring-training facility in Goodyear, Ariz., while he recovers from surgery.
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