What is Menotropin - the drug that has landed Miguel Ángel López with a four-year doping ban?

It was announced by the UCI this week that Colombian cyclist Miguel Ángel López has received a four-year suspension for an anti-doping violation. 

López’s name had been linked for months to Operación Ilex, an anti-doping investigation in Spain, which has now resulted in the lengthy suspension for the former Astana Qazaqstan rider. 

A press release from the world governing body for cycling confirmed the suspension, and said that López had been found guilty of the use and possession of Menotropin, something he has since vehemently denied on social media, but what is Menotropin and why would a professional cyclist have gone near such a drug? 

What is Menotropin?

Dr Nicky Keay, a sports endocrinologist at University College London and author of Hormones, Health and Human Potential told Cycling Weekly that when looking at the effects of the use of Menotropin, it's soon clear as to why it is considered a prohibited substance by the World Anti Doping Agency and other authorities. 

Menotropin is often used to treat fertility disturbances, as Keay explained. 

"Menotrophin, as I understand it, is a mixture of FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone), and maybe a bit of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), used to stimulate the production of sex steroid hormones from your ovaries or testes," she said. 

"In the case of women this would be mainly oestradiol [oestrogen] and in men testosterone. This is why this medication is often used in fertility treatment."

She added: "In a sporting context you can see why this is on the banned list as it would cause artificial or external increase in testosterone which could confer a performance advantage and health risk." 

López and Operación Ilex

López, a winner of stages in all three Grand Tours, has consistently denied any links to Dr Marcos Maynar, a Spanish university professor who was arrested for his links to drug trafficking and money laundering in 2022 and who was the centre of the Operación Ilex investigation. 

Reacting to the news of his suspension on Wednesday, López said he would fight the decision. 

"In my understanding, the offence does not exist and the sanction is unjustified," he wrote on X/Twitter. "I will appeal immediately before the UCI and defend my innocence as I have always done. I have faith that I will return to the world of professional cycling." 

Up until recently the Colombian was riding for the Medellin-EPM Continental team. At the time of the initial links to Maynar surfacing, López was contracted to the Astana squad. 

Astana soon dropped López due to his "probable connection" to Maynar, but he then took the team to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and accused them of an "unlawful"  breach of his contract. 

López has one month to appeal his four-year ban at CAS.