Today's award goes to basketball player D. J. Cooper, an American competing in Europe.
Cooper had to undergo a doping control to potentially join the Bosnian national team as a naturalized player. The test results on the urine that Cooper provided as his own, revealed that he’s… pregnant. More precisely, the presence of “gHC”, a hormone the placenta produces after impregnation, was detected in the urine sample.
FIBA immediately suspended the player for fraud. Cooper’s punishment will keep him out of courts until June 20, 2020.
There's more at the link.
It seems Mr. Cooper "borrowed" his girlfriend's urine for the sample he had to provide. Neither of them was apparently aware (at the time) of the little bundle of joy on its way to them.
Could his suspension be termed a "pregnant pause" in Mr. Cooper's career?
Peter
D. B. Cooper jumped out of an airliner, over Washington State, with a big bag of other people's money. May or may not have lived through it.
ReplyDeleteD. J. Cooper is the guy in Bosnia.
Are you sure we are not just assuming Cooper's gender? :P Some people are slow to learn.
ReplyDeleteEither way, we await the outcome expectantly.
ReplyDelete@Unknown: Thanks. Fixed it.
ReplyDeleteBut.... if he has prostate cancer he could produce gHC Hormone as a by-product of that CA. Just saying, he also should have a check up with his Family doc or a urologist to be sure. And have his girl friend pee on the stick...
ReplyDeleteWifmann used to work at a lab.
ReplyDeleteThe fishing boat crews all had to be drug tested.
As here, one guy came up pregnant.
It happens more than one would expect.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3818947/?report=classic
ReplyDelete"Human chorionic gonadotropin
GCTs produce an intact hCG molecule (a 38 kilodalton protein composed of α and β subunits normally secreted by placental syncytiotrophoblasts) and/or the β subunit of this protein alone. The α subunit closely resembles that of pituitary hormones, including luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone, and thyroid-stimulating hormone. As a result, only the β subunit is measured by the most commonly available serum assays. The β subunit is a 70% homolog with LH but has a unique c-terminal extension that allows for differential identification by radioimmunoassay techniques.
The serum half-life of hCG is approximately 24–36 hours. Normalization of hCG levels after orchiectomy (expected 4–6 days after surgery) for patients with stage I disease indicates likely elimination of the tumor, but persistently elevated levels should raise concern for residual disease. The extent of its elevation depends on histologic tumor subtype and the overall disease burden. With regard to NSGCTs, hCG can be markedly elevated with pure choriocarcinomas but is often only moderately elevated in conjunction with embryonal cell carcinoma and mixed GCTs. Elevations of hCG can also be seen in approximately 10%–20% of patients with stage I seminoma and up to 30%–50% of disseminated seminoma secondary to the presence of syncytiotrophoblastic elements within the tumor, but at serum levels rarely above 500 mIU/mL.7,8"