Rumours and allegations began during international sporting events in the mid-twentieth century, and a number of doctors and scientists have repeated claims about it, but it remains unproven, and is often regarded as a myth.
In the first three months it is known that a woman's body produces a natural surplus of red blood cells, which are well supplied with oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, in order to support the growing fetus.
[1] Other potential advantages are obtained from the surge in hormones that pregnancy induces, predominantly progesterone and estrogen, but also testosterone, which could increase muscle strength.
[1] Peter Larkins, an official of the Australian Sports Medicine Association, opined that the advantages of abortion doping would be "far outweighed by the drawbacks of morning sickness and fatigue" which are common in early pregnancy.
[1] Concerns around pregnancy as a doping method were discussed in an IOC Medical Commission meeting on February 16, 1984, though the idea was dismissed as members did not feel “that such a procedure would be of benefit to the female athletes”.
"[5][7] On the First Permanent World Conference on Anti-Doping in Sport held in June 1988, Prince Alexandre de Merode, the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), supported reports that Eastern European athletes were getting artificially inseminated and then aborting two to three months later in an attempt to boost athletic performance on the First Permanent World Conference on Anti-Doping in Sport.