Bigger than sport: the enhanced games and the commodification of telehealth, testosterone, and dependency.

The Enhanced Games has incorporated telehealth services into its platform that explicitly promote testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) products.

• Finding was based on qualitative content analysis of the Enhanced Games' official website with specific focus on telehealth offerings.
• The telehealth advertisements 'explicitly promote testosterone products.'
• This represents a 'shift and blurring boundaries between sport (performance enhancement) and society (longevity, wellness, optimisation).'
• The organization positions itself as a 'commercial actor within the broader biomedical, wellness, and longevity sector.'

The Enhanced Games uses sport as a vehicle to market TRT, extending its agenda beyond athletic competition.

• The study found the Enhanced Games 'leverages sport as a vehicle to market TRT.'
• The organization's ambitions extend 'beyond the sporting arena.'
• The study draws on Cooper and Waldby's (2014) concept of the bioeconomy, in which 'human bodies become sites for pharmaceutical accumulation and capital generation.'
• The Enhanced Games was found to seek to exploit this bioeconomy concept.

The Enhanced Games' promotion of TRT through telehealth raises concerns about physiological dependency resulting from prolonged exogenous testosterone use.

• The study identifies 'the risk of physiological dependency resulting from prolonged use of exogenous testosterone' as an important concern.
• The Enhanced Games 'may serve as a powerful force towards expanding' the telehealth testosterone market, in the context of already-existing over-prescription of testosterone through telehealth services.
• The authors call for 'critical reflection on the ethical, medical, and regulatory implications of such practices.'
• The commodification of TRT occurs 'under the guise of sport and health optimisation.'

Existing discourse on the Enhanced Games has primarily focused on its challenge to anti-doping frameworks, while its telehealth and commercial dimensions have received less critical attention.

• Prior discourse has focused on the Enhanced Games' 'potential to undermine traditional sporting values by permitting and promoting the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).'
• Existing discussion has centered on 'challenging established anti-doping frameworks.'
• The study identifies a 'broader agenda' that has emerged as the Enhanced Games 'continues to expand its brand,' specifically the incorporation of telehealth services.
• The study aims to 'critically examine the Enhanced Games' role in facilitating access to testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) through its emerging telehealth services.'