The head of a leading international anti-doping laboratory on Tuesday called for a complete change in the strategy used to fight illicit testosterone use in sport, warning that detection methods were inadequate.
Martial Saugy, the head of the Swiss anti-doping laboratory in Lausanne, said the science of detection had fallen behind because of fears of legal wrangling, while testosterone doping methods had become more sophisticated.
Doses used when the approved testing methods were set up in 1982 were "massive", he explained in interviews with Swiss radio RSR.
"We are no longer in that situation now and so the whole anti-doping strategy against testosterone must be changed," he added.
The current controversies surrounding positive tests for Tour de France winner Floyd Landis and US sprinter Justin Gatlin showed that testosterone is still a problem, Saugy said.
"This is not biotechnology, highbrow genetic doping. We simply need to be able to refine the testing system to go and find these products."
However, Saugy cautioned that anti-doping laboratories were exposed to far more intense legal challenges than before.
Laboratories should be supported in their bid to pursue testing methods that are tailored to each individual athlete, exploring a broader range of markers than currently available, he added.
Research undertaken by the WADA-accredited Lausanne laboratory indicated that there were major differences in the way the human body absorbs additional doses of the male sex hormone and reacts to it.
"There is a very big variation between individuals, as much in the effects as in the ability to detect the product," Saugy said.
"The study does not conclude that dozens or hundreds of athletes are doped with testosterone, but that athletes are not all equal before testosterone doping."
Saugy called on the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to react more speedily.
"WADA has made a major effort to try to harmonise the (sports) federations and I think the political and legal aspect was more important to them than the effectiveness and scientific aspect of the anti-doping drive."
"To be a success, WADA needs to be more reactive, as reactive as the world of doping," the Swiss expert said.
The Lausanne anti-doping laboratory, which is regularly used by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and European football's governing body UEFA, was at the centre of a lengthy legal wrangle over Tyler Hamilton.
A two-year ban slapped on the US cyclist in 2004 was only confirmed in February when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the testing method used to detect illicit blood transfusions.
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