The legality of testosterone therapy for athletes with ligament injuries depends on the governing body of their sport. The typical healing time for a ligament injury varies depending on the severity of the injury. Testosterone stimulates fibroblasts to synthesize more collagen, potentially strengthening the healing ligament. Collagen is the main structural protein in ligaments, providing strength and elasticity. They can assess your individual needs and risks and recommend an appropriate treatment plan. Taking testosterone without a prescription can lead to serious health risks, including cardiovascular problems, liver damage, prostate issues, and mood disturbances. Testosterone promotes the development of secondary male sexual characteristics such as increased in muscle and bone mass and induced male sexual behavior while its active metabolite, 5α-DHT promotes male pattern hair distribution. Studies have shown a higher plasma relaxin level in pregnant women with pelvic joint instability and increased hip joint laxity 16,17. Testosterone effect on knee passive ROM is likely mediated via dihydro-testosterone (DHT), and involves downregulation of Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 expression, which may provide the mechanism underlying testosterone-induced decrease in female knee laxity. Both tendon and ligament were harvested and then analysed for protein and mRNA expression for Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 respectively. However, recently the effect of estrogen on other musculoskeletal tissues such as muscle, tendon, and ligament has become the focus of more research. Shifting to the low progesterone OC in the specific preparation phase, or in season, would help increase stiffness within tendon and ligament while not preventing muscle repair following quality sessions or games. More recently, experiments have been performed to evaluate whether rhPTH has healing potential at tendon level. These findings have been confirmed in a rat model of ACL reconstruction with autograph, where intermittently administered PTH has shown to enhance the thickness and micro-architecture of trabecular bone46. Therefore no conclusion can be drawn about the protective effects of contraceptives against ACL injuries. The effects of the pill on the incidence of ACL ruptures in females athletes have been evaluated with conflicting results. Because injuries to tendons are frequent and costly, and occur at all ages, mainly in subjects practicing sport activities at professional or amateur level, it is important to improve our understanding concerning the therapeutic potential of hormones in tendon healing. If this is the case, acute exercise can increase the IGF-I receptor binding capacity and affinity to IGF-1, and there may be certain maximal thresholds at which additional circulating IGF-1 is no longer effective. To counteract many of the negative aspects of menopause, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been used to reduce muscle and bone loss, and restore muscle protein balance (Hansen et al., 2012; Smith et al., 2014). In order to prevent pregnancy, or simply to regulate hormone levels, many women take oral contraceptives that provide a daily low level of estrogen and progesterone. The most common indication for prescribing exogenous testosterone is hypogonadism, a condition that presents with an array of symptoms including decreased libido and energy, as well as decreased bone and muscle mass . However, when the individual physiologic threshold of loading incidence and magnitude is exceeded, the tendon reaction reverses from favorable towards degenerative. Because tendons injuries are frequent, often with long lasting sequels, it is important to improve our understanding concerning the therapeutic potential of hormones on healing. Relevant articles focusing on the correlation between hormones and tendons, and their therapeutic use in tendinopathies, were selected. Hormones can modify tendon homeostasis, some of them leading to tendon damage, while others are essentials for healing. Relaxin administration resulted in further increase in knee laxity in the groups receiving both testosterone doses with FLU or FIN, which again suggested the release of DHT-mediated inhibition on relaxin receptor expression. The knee ROM was however increased following FLU or FIN administration, suggesting that inhibition of androgen binding to its receptor and conversion of testosterone to DHT caused the increase in knee laxity. Our findings which revealed downregulation of relaxin receptor expression in the knee ligaments and tendons by testosterone has provided explanation for the observed decrease in knee passive ROM under testosterone influence. So far, no study has reported testosterone effect on relaxin receptor expression in the joints, although relaxin has been shown to affect ligament laxity and its receptor was expressed in female knee joint of both humans and rodents . In Figure 5, the expression of Rxfp1 protein in the lateral collateral ligament was reduced following testosterone only treatment, which was antagonized by FLU and FIN. Concomitant administration of testosterone and relaxin did not result in a significant change in knee ROM as compared to testosterone only treatment; however this was significantly increased following flutamide or finasteride addition. However, as more women participate in sports it is clear that these physiological effects of estrogen contribute to decreases in power and performance and make women more prone for catastrophic ligament injury. After the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to the control sample of 6 million patients, 9% (544,702) were included for the matching process. The control group was created by generating a random sample of 6 million patients of all ages from 2010 to 2020. After exclusions, 27% (520,915) of the patients remained, of which we took a random sample of 10% (200,000) of the patients for the matching process. To ensure full medical records, we included only patients who were active (with existing insurance claims or no change in insurance provider) in the database for 1 year before and 2 years after the filled prescription. This dataset provides the means to longitudinally track patients and their procedures, medical diagnoses, and medications. Thyroxine has an important role both in collagen synthesis and matrix metabolism. Therefore, it may be speculated that testosterone regulates lineage determination and differentiation in mesenchymal pluripotent cells resident in tendons25. The cultured cells increase in number after 48 and 72 hours after treatment, and acquire a more de-differentiated aspect, becoming more flattened and polygonal with round nuclei, in comparison with control cultures, that show an elongated shape25. The synthesis of type I collagen, fibronectin and elastin is decreased, and a significantly lower healing rate in a micro-wound healing model has been found22,23. In research contexts, BPC-157 has been explored for its effects on connective tissue healing, intestinal repair, and vascular integrity. It is important to distinguish BPC-157 from anabolic steroids, growth hormone, or testosterone-based compounds. BPC-157, short for Body Protection Compound-157, is a synthetic peptide derived from a naturally occurring protective protein found in gastric juice. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and contraceptive management can be used to support symptom management, especially in post-menopausal women or women who report worsening symptoms during their menstrual cycle. Given that hypermobile people already have lax joints and rely on muscle control to help stabilise those joints, it is not surprising that this effect can be amplified in some hypermobile people. It is also quite common for hypermobile people taking a progesterone-only version of birth control to experience an increase in symptoms – in which case it may be best to find an alternative.