Nandrolone decanoate dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Tested in people on dialysis, in burn patients, and in women with thin bones after menopause, in a review that pooled several studies. The medical record is real, and it was pulled from most markets anyway.
Evidence grade for Nandrolone decanoate: Limited. The rule: people have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. The sum on this page: 3 completed trials, none stating how many people. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 0
- Human studies
- 3
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
3 completed trials, 0 people given it
6 effects reported, 5 unwanted, 1 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Heart and circulation, Bone and joints
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid given as a shot. Its street name is Deca. It has real medical studies in people whose bodies were wasting. It was pulled from the US market and is a controlled drug.
What people take it for
- Joint pain, as a low dose added to testosterone replacement.
- Building muscle.
- Bone and muscle loss, which is where the medical studies are.
What studies in people showed
In 54 people with advanced kidney disease, more nandrolone built more muscle. On the highest dose, arm and leg muscle went up 2.1 kg, against about 0.3 kg with no drug. But they did not move better. In 40 burn patients, it was reported to slow the body's breakdown. In 29 people on dialysis, lean body mass went up about 4.5 kg, against 1.9 kg on a dummy shot. A review that pooled studies in women with thin bones after menopause said it might help some of them, with close checks. Women could not put up with the higher dose because of male-type body changes.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- People taking a low dose with testosterone say joint pain eases over about six to eight weeks, mostly shoulders, knees and wrists.
The bad
- Forum moderators warn the relief only hides the damage. People feel better, train harder, and hurt the same joint again.
- Sex problems and low sex drive come up so often they have their own slang.
- Low mood and loss of drive around eight to ten weeks. In a small forum poll, most said it made their mood worse.
- Standard testosterone blood tests read falsely high on it, so people say you need a special lab test.
- Worse blood fat results make some people stop even when they liked how they felt.
Where these come from: Forum patterns from ExcelMale threads, including a mood poll, read in September 2026. These are not from a study. The study results are from the papers on this page.
My bottom line
The medical record is real, and it is all in sick people. For joint pain, fix your training and load first. A drug that hides pain while you keep hurting the joint is not a fix.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals Nandrolone decanoate has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Kidney functionno headcount stated · 1 study
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with Nandrolone decanoate, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
29 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Nandrolone decanoate
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Nandrolone decanoate does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Nandrolone decanoate and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Nandrolone decanoate?
Tested in people on dialysis, in burn patients, and in women with thin bones after menopause, in a review that pooled several studies. The medical record is real, and it was pulled from most markets anyway.
Nandrolone has more medical studies than any other steroid except testosterone itself. They cover three groups of people with one thing in common. Their bodies are losing tissue they cannot replace.
In people on dialysis, a study in 29 adults found it built muscle. In a study of 54 people with advanced kidney disease, more nandrolone built more muscle. In burn patients, a study in 40 people found it safely slowed the body's breakdown. That paper openly suggested a new use for a drug that had already been pulled. For women with thin bones after menopause, a 2025 review pooled the studies. It said nandrolone might help as an add-on for some women, mainly those also losing muscle or with bone pain that other treatment has not helped. It said this needs close checks and blood tests, and bigger modern studies.
That last result matters for one kind of reader. Women losing both muscle and bone after menopause are among the least well served by today's options. This drug has proof that almost nobody shows them.
How does Nandrolone decanoate work?
Nandrolone is testosterone with one small piece removed. A long chemical tail is added so it releases slowly from an oil shot. It attaches strongly to the testosterone receptor. The body turns very little of it into estrogen. In some parts of the body, like the scalp and prostate, it gets turned into a weaker hormone. With testosterone, the opposite happens: it gets turned into a stronger one. That is why nandrolone is milder on scalp hair and the prostate. It is also part of why it is well known for causing sex problems, which surprises people since it is a steroid.
What have studies in people found about Nandrolone decanoate?
Studies in people across three groups whose bodies were wasting, plus a review that pooled studies in women with thin bones after menopause. That is broad for a steroid, and it is all in sick people, not healthy ones.
- 54 people with advanced kidney disease took low, medium or high doses for 24 weeks. Muscle in the arms and legs went up with the dose, from about 0.3 kg in the untreated group to 2.1 kg on the highest dose. How well they could move did not clearly improve.
- 40 burn patients: the drug was reported to safely slow the body's breakdown.
- 29 people on dialysis: lean body mass went up about 4.5 kg on nandrolone against 1.9 kg on a dummy shot.
- A review that pooled studies in women with thin bones after menopause said it might help some women as an add-on, with close checks.
- Sex problems are a known and surprising effect. They come from the body making little estrogen from it and turning it into a weaker hormone.
- It was pulled from the US market despite this record. That was a business and rules decision, not a finding that it does not work.
What this does not tell you: Much of this proof is old, and the 2025 review says so when it asks for bigger modern studies. The bone result is about some women with close checks, not advice for everyone. Today there are bone treatments that did not exist when most of these studies were run. Nothing here is about healthy adults who want muscle. And since the drug is pulled in the US, what is sold under its street name is not checked. None of this proof can be assumed to apply to it.
What do people who took Nandrolone decanoate report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- The use described on these boards is not a bodybuilding cycle. It is a low dose added to testosterone replacement, commonly 50 to 100 mg a week and sometimes as low as 20 to 40, and the convention repeated most often is keeping it at or below half the testosterone dose, which posters describe as the way to avoid the sexual side effects.
- Joint pain is what people say they are after, and relief is commonly described over roughly six to eight weeks, with shoulders, knees and wrists described more often than spine or neck.
- The most important recurring caution is that relief is masking rather than repair. Moderators make the point repeatedly that cartilage and tendon damage is still there, and that the predictable sequence is feeling better, training harder because strength is up, and re-injuring the same joint.
- Sexual dysfunction and low libido have their own slang on these boards, which is itself a signal of how often it comes up. Depression, flat mood and loss of motivation are described appearing around eight to ten weeks, and a small forum poll on mood ran clearly negative, with most respondents saying it made their mood worse. Anxiety and a racing heart are described by some people at doses far below what anyone would call a cycle.
- Individual variability is the thing posters keep returning to. The same dose produces opposite mood outcomes in different people, and nobody in these threads has an explanation for that. Recovery after stopping is commonly described as taking a couple of months.
- A practical trap raised often is bloodwork: standard immunoassay testosterone results read high because the assay cross reacts, so people describe needing mass spectrometry to know their actual level. Worse blood fat results are named as a reason people stop even when they liked how they felt.
- One dissenting line runs through the joint pain threads: that training technique and load management matter more than the drug, and that without changing those the injury comes back regardless.
Sources: Nandrolone and TRT threads on ExcelMale, including a mood poll thread, found by site-restricted search and through the site's tag index, read directly, September 2026. Nothing above is attributed to any specific post and no post is reproduced.
The state of the research
The interesting thing about nandrolone is that its medical proof is better than its legal status, and those two facts do not clash.
It has studies in people on dialysis, people with kidney disease and burn patients, plus a review that pooled studies in women with thin bones after menopause. That is a real record. It was also pulled from the US market. A drug can be pulled for business reasons, because safer options arrived, or because its medical use is now treated another way. None of those is a finding that it does not work.
The bone result deserves attention because of who it is about. Women losing muscle and bone after menopause are poorly served. The review points to the group this drug might help: women also losing muscle, or with bone pain that other treatment has not helped. In the same breath it says this needs close checks, blood tests and bigger modern studies. Both halves matter to anyone thinking about it.
The harms of this group of drugs are well known and not unusual. They shut down the body's own testosterone. That lowers sperm count, which usually comes back after stopping, but not always. They push cholesterol the wrong way, usually lowering HDL, the good kind, and raising LDL, the bad kind. That is worse with the steroid pills that have a small chemical change to survive the liver. Those same pills strain the liver, which is why they are their own risk group. They thicken the blood. In women, they cause male traits like a deeper voice and more body hair, and some of that does not go away. That is why dosing in women is a different problem, not a smaller version of the same one. Heart effects at doses above the body's normal range are on record. That is a separate question from normal replacement doses of testosterone, which have their own large safety study.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
3studies in people cited, but none says how many people took part
number of people not stated
We do not draw a total, because none of the studies in people on this page gives one. Read the sources below for what each study measured.
We read the number of people from the source lines on this page. Where a line gives no number, we count nothing for it. We do not guess.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
3 of 4 sources here are studies in people. The rest is not.
- Study in people · done in people375%
- Review of studies · sums up other studies125%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 4 different years, 1999 to 2025, counted from the list of sources on this page.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Approved
AU
Approved
CA
Approved
Approved in 3 of 4, by prescription in 0, not approved in 1. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Hormone
- Molecule weight
- 428.6 Da for the decanoate ester. A steroid ester, not a peptide.
- Half-life
- About 9 daysVery long, weeks+
- Chain length
- None on file
Half-life as stated on file: Roughly 6 to 12 days as the decanoate ester, so it is dosed weekly or less often. Detectable metabolites persist far longer, which matters for anyone subject to drug testing.
No amino acid sequence is on file for Nandrolone decanoate, which is expected: a hormone is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Study in people1999Anabolic effects of nandrolone decanoate in patients receiving dialysis: a randomized controlled trial
Nandrolone built real muscle in people on dialysis, in a small but well-run study. 29 adults on long-term dialysis got the drug or a dummy shot for six months. Lean body mass rose about 4.5 kg on nandrolone against 1.9 kg on the dummy shot. Treated patients also walked and climbed stairs faster, while the dummy group got slower. Grip strength did not change in either group. 29 people is a small study.
A randomised controlled trial in dialysis patients, published in JAMA, reporting anabolic effects. One of the few randomised trials of an anabolic steroid in a major general medical journal, and the basis of the drug's renal indication.
- Study in people2022Nandrolone decanoate safely combats catabolism in burned patients: a new potential indication after recall
A small study in Egypt reported that nandrolone kept burned patients from wasting away. 40 people with burns over a fifth to two fifths of their body got nandrolone or no drug. The authors say muscle was kept and protein balance was better on the drug. The paper's summary gives no figures and no group sizes. It is one small study suggesting a new use for a drug that had been pulled.
A randomised controlled trial in burned patients. Notable for its framing: the authors present a new potential indication for a drug that had already been recalled, which is an unusual and honest position for a paper to take.
- Study in people2007Nandrolone decanoate as anabolic therapy in chronic kidney disease: a randomized phase II dose-finding study
More nandrolone built more muscle, and none of it made people move better. 54 people with advanced kidney disease got low, medium or high weekly doses for 24 weeks, and 7 more got nothing. Arm and leg muscle rose step by step with the dose, from about 0.3 kg in the untreated group to 2.1 kg on the highest dose. How well they could move did not clearly improve. Women could not put up with the higher dose because of male-type body changes.
A randomised phase 2 dose-finding study in chronic kidney disease, which is the kind of dosing work most compounds in this class never received.
- Review of studies2025Nandrolone decanoate for postmenopausal osteoporosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials
A 2025 review that pooled studies in women with thin bones after menopause. It says nandrolone might help some women as an add-on, mainly those also losing muscle or with bone pain that other treatment has not helped. Only with close checks and blood tests. The authors say bigger modern studies are needed.
Pooled randomised evidence in postmenopausal osteoporosis. The authors conclude it is a potential adjuvant option for selected postmenopausal women, particularly where muscle loss or refractory bone pain is present, provided treatment occurs under close clinical and laboratory monitoring, and that larger contemporary randomised trials are needed to define its role in modern osteoporosis management.
Common questions
Has Nandrolone decanoate been tested in people?
Yes. 0 people given it across 3 completed trials cited here, 0 of which found nothing. Tested in people on dialysis, in burn patients, and in women with thin bones after menopause, in a review that pooled several studies. The medical record is real, and it was pulled from most markets anyway.
What is the Nandrolone decanoate dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 3 completed trials, 0 people given it
Is Nandrolone decanoate FDA-approved?
Was FDA-approved for anaemia, too few red blood cells, caused by kidney disease. Withdrawn from the United States market. A Schedule III controlled substance. Still licensed in some other countries.
Why does a withdrawn drug have good trial evidence?
Because pulling a drug is a business and rules decision, not a science verdict. Nandrolone has studies in people on dialysis, people with kidney disease and burn patients. A review also pooled studies in women with thin bones after menopause. Drugs leave the market when better options arrive, when medical uses change, or when sales do not cover the paperwork.
Could it help postmenopausal bone loss?
A 2025 review that pooled studies said it might help some women as an add-on after menopause. That is mainly women who are also losing muscle, or who have bone pain that other treatment has not helped. It needs close checks and blood tests. The same authors want bigger modern studies. Today there are bone treatments that did not exist when most of this proof was gathered.
Does it really cause sexual dysfunction?
Yes, it is a known effect, and it surprises people because it is a steroid. The likely reasons: the body makes little estrogen from it, and estrogen matters for a man's sex drive. And in some tissues it turns into a weaker hormone, not a stronger one. Meanwhile it shuts down your own testosterone as well as any other steroid.
How long does it stay detectable?
Much longer than you would think. Traces stay in the body for months. That matters for anyone drug tested in sport or at work. It is why this drug shows up in so many doping cases.