For the prohormone enthusiast, it’s unfortunate that the days of intense anabolic steroid research are over…they occurred between the 1930’s and 1990-ish. At that earlier point, testosterone had been isolated for quite some time, and the pharmaceutical industry trended towards synthesizing anabolic steroids to treat a variety of diseases and conditions. And, pinpointing the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1990, we find that a wealth of doping information had been collected until that point by East German scientists and doctors who had been working on the state sponsored sports doping program. Of course much of these earlier strides laid the groundwork for the more common bodybuilding applications we see them used for today. And in fact, we most of the designer steroids we’ve seen (THG, etc…) and prohormones have been based on research that was already decades old.
If you’re considering steroid use or prohormone use, or are simply new to the steroid world, consider this a crash course; if you’re already an old hand at steroid use, consider this a refresher course; because for over two decades, with few exceptions, we’ve been in a relative drought for cutting-edge studies. It goes without saying that any steroid or prohormone cycle ought to be accompanied by something to support your health and something like HCGenerate to support a speedy return to normal hormone levels. N2 Guard is actually considered a “must have” supplement among health-conscious prohormone fans, for helping to keep them healthy while on a cycle.
During the early days of steroid research, thousands of different anabolic steroids were described by the pharmaceutical industry, in a seemingly endless attempt to formulate the Holy Grail – a completely side-effect free steroid, with ideal anabolic and androgenic properties. But very few of steroids ever made it through the testing phase and even fewer moved on to be patented.
That’s why, every so often, we see some new steroid showing up as an undetectable compound being used in doping circles, or on the nutritional market. The former arises from the inevitable demand athletes place on themselves to be the best in their given sport, while the latter comes from a poorly written law in the United States of America, that essentially make it legal to sell certain prohormones as dietary supplements (given that certain provisos are met). In many cases, specific prohormones have later been made illegal by new legislation (on the chopping block right now is Superdrol clones – like Beastdrol - so stock up!). And again, we’re not talking about new research here, we’re talking about very old research being recycled and repackaged.
Between 75 and 100 different steroids have washed up on the shores of the American dietary market, between the first Andro (4-Androstene-3,17-dione) bottle that appeared in Mark McGwire’s locker, to the more recent products like Helladrol, Dieselbolan, and Katanadrol.
There are three basic families of anabolic steroids, most of which will be familiar, or at least partially familiar, to the average steroid user.
Testosterone is, of course, the first anabolic steroid synthesized. It’s been rightly characterized as the gold standard for all anabolics, and is in fact the one against which all others are measured in terms of potency. Testosterone is the most important naturally occurring steroid. In men it is synthesized in the testes at the rate of roughly 4-10 milligrams per day, while another 0.5 mg per day comes from the adrenal coortex. Helladrol is a great example of a testosterone-based prohormone, but with an added 4-chloro attachment that prevents it from converting to estrogen.
You see, testosterone is naturally reduced to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and oxidized to estradiol. We see this conversion to DHT in tissus such as the scalp, while oxidation takes place in adipose (fat) and other tissue.
Testosterone and dihydrotestosterone together are responsible for the typically male sex characteristics, but their function is different. In the adolescence testosterone induces the sex drive in men, enlargement of the penis, the production of sperm, increase of muscle mass and lowering of the voice, the so called anabolic effects.
While testosterone is responsible for the primary sexual maturation of males, Dihydrotestosterone is responsible for what we generally call secondary sexual effects during puberty, i.e. an increase in body and facial hair, acne, and a deeping of the voice. These effects are termed androgenic. Indeed, Dihydrotestosterone forms its own family of anabolic steroids, including Anadrol, Primobolan, Anavar, Masteron, Superdrol, and more. With the exception of the ‘drols, these steroids are generally used on cutting cycles. Beastdrol is an example of an incredibly popular and effective DHT-based prohormone (and while it’s still currently legal, that may change in the future). Katanadrol is also in this same family, and is a very potent prohormone used for cutting cycles.
D-Aspartic Acid is a very popular testosterone booster used after prohormone cycles.
Testosterone in the methylated form, as well as its esters, have been on the market for a very long time as anabolic preparations. Because it’s orally inactive in its natural form, it’s necessary to methylate it (as in methyltestosterone) or inject it. Methylated, it acts very quickly, as it does when injected, unless an ester is attached. After injecting a testosterone ester, a slowed release to the blood takes place, the length of which depends on the length of the attached ester. With this simple chemical alteration, we can inject once a week, instead of daily. Testosterons and its derivatives are the most versatile of anabolic steroids, seen in both bulking cycles, and they include Testosterone Cypionate (and Enanthate, Propionate, etc…), Dianabol, Clostebol (and it’s prohormone variant, Helladrol), Equipoise, and blends like Omnadren and Sustanon.
And finally, the third major family of anabolic steroids, is 19-nor, most famously represented by Deca-Durabolin (commonly known as just Deca, which is Nandrolone Decanoate). Nandrolone, especially in the Decanoate form (a long acting ester) is a wildly popular steroid with a very good ability to build muscle, help heal injuries, and possessing few side effects.
Like testosterone, nandrolone can convert to estrogen, but in principle it does so in such a miniscule amount so as to make it unnoticeable to most users. but this happens only under special circumstances and in small amounts. It can also convert to a dihydro version, just as we see with testosterone, but in this case, it’s converted to Dihydronandrolone. Again, this is a relatively minor conversion, and not noticeable to most users. And just as we see with the other two families, the 19-nor group generally shares many of the same properties with drugs it shares a familial bond with. Although I don’t consider this family to be as versatile as testosterone per se, we find that Deca can be used in both a cutting or bulking cycle, while other drugs in the category include Trenbolone, Nilevar, and Nandrolone Phenylpropionate – and are generally thought to be cutting drugs.
So while none of this is particularly new information, we can see that this old information is the stuff that makes up the foundation of tomorrow’s hottest designer undetectable steroid, the next prohormone, or the next trend in new-steroid-from the old (i.e. Masteron Enanthate, Trenbolone Enanthate, etc..).
