Anabolic Steroids

Androgen receptor agonists derived from testosterone: testosterone itself, nandrolone, trenbolone, boldenone, drostanolone, methenolone, and the orals — stanozolol, methandienone, oxandrolone, oxymetholone. The anabolic-to-androgenic split the class is named for is a ratio, not a separation; every member is androgenic. What varies is the rest of the profile. Some aromatise to oestrogen and some do not, nandrolone and trenbolone carry progestogenic activity, and the 17α-alkylated orals are built to survive first-pass metabolism, which is precisely why they strain the liver.

At class level, the body stops making its own while an exogenous androgen is present; that suppression, and recovery from it, is what the Ancillaries family exists for. Lipids move the wrong way, haematocrit rises, and cardiac effects accumulate with duration of use rather than with dose alone.