Prohormones

Steroids sold in capsules as supplements, in two kinds. The precursors — 1-Andro, 4-Andro and epiandrosterone — are DHEA isomers that do little themselves and are converted by the body's own enzymes into an active androgen: 1-Andro toward 1-testosterone, 4-Andro toward testosterone, epiandrosterone toward dihydrotestosterone. The orals — methasterone, halodrol and dimethazine, which is two methasterone molecules joined by an azine bridge — are 17α-methylated designer steroids that act directly, and were sold as prohormones because that word described a legal category, not a pharmacology.

The name suggests something milder than a steroid, and for the methylated orals that is wrong: they carry the liver strain of the 17α-alkylated class, shift lipids hard, and suppress the body's own testosterone like any other androgen. The precursors are gentler per capsule but are still androgens once converted. Labels in this market have repeatedly named one compound and contained another, so what a bottle says it holds is the seller's claim.