Androgenic-Anabolic Steroids

Boys with precocious puberty ("Infant Hercules") are striking examples of the androgenic and anabolic effects of the natural androgenic steroids. Large muscles from nitrogen retention (anabolic) appear pari passu with genital growth (androgenic). The introduction of the levator ani assay by Eisenberg and Gordon gave the biologists a tool with which to screen steroids for their relative androgenic-anabolic potencies. The chemists responded with a flood of compounds to screen. Preferentially myotrophic compounds have been found from a wide variety of structural changes in androgens. Many have been shown to be anabolic in man and more useful than natural agents because of their lesser propensity for virilization. Some new androgenic-anabolic steroids are playing an important role in cancer therapy.