Health Tips / Nandrolone
Nandrolone (19-nortestosterone) is a prohibited anabolic steroid. All the anabolic steroids are related to the naturally occurring male sex hormone testosterone. It is anabolic in nature, i.e. promoting the build up of some body tissues like muscle.
Nandrolone is also closely related to two other banned steroids 19-norandrostenedione and 19-norandrostenediol.
Nandrolone can have beneficial effects in clinical medicine for example, to treat certain cancers such as breast cancer, some types of blood disorders and manage conditions such as postmenopausal osteoporosis.
Nandrolone is prohibited in sport, as an anabolic steroid it can offer an unfair advantage to those taking it by improving body build, increasing muscle size, strength and power, facilitating harder and longer training and increasing aggression and competitiveness.
Anabolic steroids can have extremely damaging side effects such as liver and heart damage, an increase in violent and aggressive behaviour, irreversible increase in facial and body hair growth etc.
Testing
Urine tests determine the presence of the main metabolite, 19-norandrosterone.
(A metabolite is simply a by-product left after a substance has been modified by a chemical reaction while passing through the human body. An simple analogy would be putting coal on a fire and being left with ash and soot at the end.)
Nandrolone occurs naturally in the body but only in small amounts. Trace amounts can occur in normal urine samples. For anti-doping testing purposes a limit has been set to take this factor into account.
Doping violation occurs at levels of
| Men | 19-noradrosterone - 2 nanograms per millilitre |
| Women | 19-noradrosterone - 5 nanograms per millilitre |
19-noradrosterone is not just a marker for nandrolone use but for all testosterone related compounds Nadrolone is also closely related to two other banned steroids 19-norandrostenedione and 19-norandrostenediol, which are all classed as 19-norsteroids. These agents produce the same metabolite in the urine. These agents are usually offered as nutritional supplements with their presence declared or undeclared on the label.
Related health tips:- Anti-Doping: 2025 Guide for Prescribers
- Athletes Fluid Requirements
- Changes to the Prohibited List 2025
- Drugs abuse in sports
- Ephedra prohibited in the US
- IOC Study on Sports Supplements
- Irish Sports Council's Policy on Treatment of Hayfever
- Nandrolone
- Supplements
- THG
- What is EPO?
