A muscle enhancement substance used by bodybuilders is the first thing that most think of when hearing the word steroids.

One should remember that “steroids” is the name of a group of natural hormones produced by the human body.

Adrenal cortex hormones, female sex hormones and male sex hormones are part of the natural hormones. This article is about male sex hormones also called androgens.

Androgenic Anabolic steroids are substances obtained in laboratories and some of their features are alike those of the natural testosterone hormone.

The primary goal when developing this substances was to make a drug with a high level of testosterone’s anabolic and low androgenic activity at the same time.

A lot of effort was made to invent an anabolic hormone that would not have androgenic side effects. Tremendous changes were made in the steroid molecule in order to implement this idea.

Some of the created products had even higher androgenic and lower anabolic capabilities at the same time.

New anabolics are different by either not having enough anabolic-androgenic activity or have raised efficiency for both. This is why they differ by efficacy, side effects, action of existing synthetic hormones.

It was not possible to create such an anabolic, that would have all of the growth effects and none of the other. Thus all of the anabolic steroids have androgen exposure at some degree, and the androgens possess some of the anabolic features.

The name of  “anabolic steroids” doesn’t tell much about the potency and effectiveness of the anabolic activity, except for the fact that the androgenic–anabolic ratio was changed.

This is why it’s wrong thinking that you would need an anabolic with low androgenic activity for a rapid gain of muscle mass and strength.

Steroids with lower androgenic effect are defined as anabolics and on the other hand – androgenic are called those with higher androgenic activity.

The hormone testosterone is the parameter for determining this ratio, and classify a steroid as anabolic or androgenic.

The problem is that the decrease in androgenic effect of the hormone leads to lowered anabolic activity. Therefore being less androgenic than testosterone makes the steroid at the same time less anabolic.

Most of the steroids used for mass gaining are quite androgenic and along with the androgen activity provide a high growth effect.

Therefore most bodybuilders face the question “what to choose?”, because androgens have not only a strong anabolic activity, but have also a lot of side effects and can do more damage to the body.

The opinion that anabolic steroids cause a irreversible and persistent damage is only partly true as the androgenic steroids are responsible for most of the side effects.

But the general view: “Steroids are destroying the liver” – is absurd, because not all steroids are alike.