Nantes (AFP)

The accusation was heavy: pregnancy tests carried out in the Nantes handball club without the consent of the players. The club's explanation was intended to be quick and prosaic on Friday: it was a doctor's step, only in the interests of the players.

Thursday evening, the Association of Professional Handball Players (AJPH) denounced "unacceptable practices", ensuring that these tests had been carried out "without the consent of the players".

Friday afternoon, they were a dozen around the president of the club, Arnaud Ponroy, to express their confidence in Dr Thibault Berlivet, the doctor who prescribed these tests last summer as part of their health check-up at the start of season, and ensuring that medical confidentiality had never been betrayed.

Camille Ayglon-Saurina, 34, international since 2007, and Léa Lignières, 24, team captain, told how the doctor had received them all for more than 35 minutes each in his office and had given them a prescription for a series of analyzes, it is up to them to then go to a laboratory.

The list included a dosage of the hormone Beta HCG, which can detect pregnancy. "We did not all have the reflex to look at what was on our prescriptions," admitted Léa Lignières, especially since not all recognized the pregnancy test in her medical name. But the players then discussed and joked between them and none discovered with the press release from AJPH that she had undergone this test, assured the young captain.

Mr. Ponroy, on the other hand, assured that he had not been informed of these tests until the reception of the AJPH press release late Thursday afternoon. "I spoke quickly enough with the doctor, the federal authorities, the trainer, to shed light on this case which is not anecdotal (...). Yes, the tests were done. No, they didn’t "are not illegal and have not been done without the consent of the players."

- "He did his job" -

Regional referent for maternity among top athletes, Dr. Berlivet added the test to the usual list of analyzes to ensure that the players were able to bear the intense efforts of the preparation for the start of the season and for know the treatments to avoid, as he does with the other athletes he follows, explained Arnaud Ponroy.

"He did his job in his soul and conscience, neither the coaching nor the coaches had access to the results," added the club president, calling the doctor an "insult" to the idea that he would have could inform the club.

But "nothing was done insidiously, and it was in our interest as players," insisted Camille Ayglon-Saurina, herself the mother of a little boy born before his arrival in Nantes, while regretting that the debate on maternity among active women and more particularly among high-level sportspersons only appears in this polemical form, whereas "inevitably, this has enormous consequences for our careers".

In a press release, the French Handball Federation (FFHB) and the Women's Handball League recalled that doctors were free to order the examinations they deem necessary, but demanded that "all the light be made" in Nantes and prepared a reminder to all club doctors on "the legal obligation to obtain an express, formal and prior agreement from athletes to prescribe a Beta HCG hormone dosage".

In recent years, the Nantes club, which has 14 professional players and eight in training, has experienced one or two pregnancies on average per season. "When a player is pregnant, we know when she wants to tell us. As in any business. In addition, the players are on contract, they have no trial period," insisted Mr. Ponroy, recalling that the club could then recruit a medical joker.

"If you're not comfortable with that, you have to run a boys' club," he added.

© 2020 AFP