• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.87-116
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• 2014

This article focuses on synthetic hormone consumption that illegal act of heterogeneous forms of pharmaceuticalization. Athletes are not unfamiliar with the use of synthetic hormones that contain anabolic steroids. Synthetic hormones are used to increase muscle mass and strength. This drug use practice cannot simply be viewed as illegal. Athletes accumulate knowledge on these hormones that conflicts with the knowledge proffered by physicians and they consume drugs responsibly. Physicians' knowledge of these hormones is limited to their use in the treatment of abnormalities. Athletes, however, are expanding the role of these hormones to include their potential for enhancement. Thereby, a new value is assigned to synthetic hormones, and an informal market is formed. Previous studies in the fields of biopolitics and biomedicalization have mainly focused on the formal connection between biomedical science and the institutional network. This article, therefore, analyzes the informal and the various aspects of biomedicalization.