Is Danazol legal in the United Kingdom?

The one drug here that made telomeres longer in people. Telomeres are the caps on the ends of your DNA that shorten with age. In a study of 27 people with inherited telomere disease, 11 of the 12 who could be measured gained length after 24 months, 386 base pairs on average. The study was stopped early. Telomere length is a lab marker, and nobody measured lifespan.

Danazol is a man-made male hormone. It was approved decades ago for endometriosis, breast lumps and hereditary angioedema, an inherited swelling condition.

How it works: Danazol is a man-made hormone with weak male-hormone effects. It turns down the hormone signals from the brain to the ovaries and testes, and it sticks to several hormone receptors.

Approval history: FDA approved for endometriosis, lumpy (fibrocystic) breast disease and hereditary angioedema, an inherited swelling disorder. It carries a boxed warning, the FDA's strongest kind. Not approved for telomere disease, ageing or any longevity use. Its use in inherited telomere diseases is off label, and it was studied under an investigational plan.

Licenses medicines for sale in the UK. A compound without a licence to be sold (a marketing authorisation) is an unlicensed medicine. The law only lets it reach people through a prescriber, under the specials scheme (unlicensed medicines made for one patient's needs). It cannot be sold as a research product.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Danazol on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check MHRA directly

Whether Danazol is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United Kingdom. Before you compete or get tested, look up Danazol by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.