Maybe you ran a cycle because a friend or a forum swore by the gains, and now your eyes look a little yellow in the mirror or your energy has fallen off a cliff. Or maybe you haven’t started yet, and you’re reading the fine print first. Either way, this page explains what RAD-140 has been linked to in the medical literature, with no lecture attached, and since it’s not FDA-approved for any use, understanding the risks is the whole point of looking them up.
What Is RAD-140 (Testolone) and Is It a Steroid?
RAD-140, sold as Testolone, is a selective androgen receptor modulator, or SARM. It’s not an anabolic steroid, and it’s not a peptide. It’s a lab-made molecule that switches on the androgen receptor in muscle and bone, which is why people take it to build size and strength.
Here’s the part that gets lost on the sales pages: RAD-140 has never been approved as a medicine, anywhere. It was studied in early research, including a first-in-human cancer trial, and never made it to market for general use. Online, it’s sold as a “research chemical” labeled not for human consumption, even though that’s exactly how it’s used. There’s no medical dose, no quality control, and no long-term human safety data behind it.
RAD-140 side effects and how strong the evidence is
The table below lists what has been reported with RAD-140 and how strong the evidence is.
| Side effect | What has been reported | Evidence level | What to check or do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Testosterone suppression | Lower natural testosterone, low libido, fatigue, low mood | Expected class effect of SARMs | Total and free testosterone, LH, FSH |
| Liver injury | Cholestatic liver injury with jaundice, dark urine, itching | Multiple case reports | Liver panel (ALT, AST, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin); urgent care if jaundice |
| Heart problems and clots | Myopericarditis, heart failure, arterial thrombosis | Case reports; arterial thrombosis in a single case report | Urgent care for chest pain or breathlessness |
| Cholesterol changes | Lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol | SARM class effect | Lipid panel |
| Mood and sleep | Irritability, low mood, sleep problems | Mostly anecdotal and review articles | Discuss with a clinician |
| Hair loss and acne | Androgenic effects reported by users | Mostly anecdotal | Skin and hair review |
| Sexual function and fertility | Lower libido, erection trouble, reduced sperm production | Linked to low testosterone; limited direct data | Testosterone test; semen analysis if planning children |
| Bloodwork at LaSara | Total and free testosterone, LH, FSH, estradiol, lipids, liver panel | Standard lab tests | Book a blood test and results review |
Evidence here is from published case reports and early research, not large safety trials; sources are listed in the References. This is not medical advice.
RAD-140 Side Effects: What Has Been Reported
Most of what we know about RAD-140 in people comes from case reports: write-ups of individual patients who ended up in a clinic or hospital. They confirm a harm is real and has happened, but not how often or at what dose. Here’s what’s been published, from best-documented to least.
Liver injury
This is the most clearly documented harm. Multiple case reports describe men who developed severe cholestatic liver injury after taking RAD-140, with jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), dark urine and intense itching. In one published case, a young man needed a liver biopsy and had a bilirubin level many times the normal limit before his liver slowly recovered after he stopped (RAD-140 drug-induced liver injury case report).
In another, a bodybuilder’s liver tests kept climbing for six weeks after he had already stopped the SARM (Australian Prescriber report). Because this injury is usually cholestatic, ALT and AST can look normal, so ask for alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin as well.
Get urgent medical care if you notice any of these while using or after stopping RAD-140:
- Yellowing of the skin or the whites of your eyes
- Dark or tea-colored urine
- Pale stools
- Severe or spreading itching
- Pain in the upper-right side of your belly
These aren’t symptoms to sleep on. Liver injury can keep progressing even after the last dose.
Heart problems and blood clots
Case reports have linked RAD-140 to serious heart events in otherwise healthy young men, including myopericarditis (inflammation of the heart and its lining) and heart failure (case reports). A 2025 case report also describes an arterial blood clot (case report). We’ll be straight with you about the numbers: how common these events are is unknown, and the reports are few. But the people they happened to didn’t expect them either.
Call emergency services or get urgent care for:
- Chest pain or pressure
- Shortness of breath, especially lying down or with mild activity
- A racing or pounding heartbeat that will not settle
- Swelling in one leg, or sudden severe leg pain
Mood, sleep, cholesterol, hair and skin
The rest of the reported effects are a mix of lab changes and user reports. On cholesterol, oral SARMs tend to lower HDL, the “good” cholesterol, which is a recognized class effect seen in SARM clinical studies (oral SARM lipid study). A simple lipid panel picks this up.
Beyond that, users report mood swings, irritability, low mood and disrupted sleep, and some report acne and hair loss from the androgenic effect. These come mostly from user reports and review articles rather than controlled trials, so watch for them and mention them to a clinician while the evidence is still thin.
How long do side effects last?
RAD-140’s half-life is around 45 hours, so the drug itself takes roughly one to two weeks to clear. The effects can outlast it: testosterone suppression and liver injury have both been reported to continue, or even worsen, after the last dose, as in the liver case above. Recovery time varies a lot from person to person, and there’s no reliable timeline to quote you. The only way to know where your body stands is to test it.
Does RAD-140 Lower Testosterone?
Yes. RAD-140 can lower your natural testosterone, and it’s one of the main reasons men come to us after a cycle. Your body makes its own testosterone through a feedback loop: the brain sends a signal (luteinizing hormone, or LH) that tells your testicles to produce it. SARMs like RAD-140 act on the same androgen receptors, so the brain senses there’s “enough” androgen around and dials that signal down. With less LH, your natural testosterone can fall.
When it does, the symptoms line up with low testosterone in general: low libido, fatigue, low mood, brain fog and trouble with erections.
Some men recover their own production after stopping, others stay suppressed for a while, and a few need medical support to get back on track. We can’t give you a percentage on who recovers and when, because the peer-reviewed data to support a number like that doesn’t exist. What we can tell you is that it’s measurable, and measuring it is the first useful step.
Which blood tests to ask for
If you’ve used RAD-140 or another SARM, these are the labs that tell the story:
- Total and free testosterone: where your levels sit now
- LH and FSH: whether your own signal has been suppressed
- Estradiol: the estrogen picture, which moves with testosterone
- Lipid panel: HDL and the rest of your cholesterol
- Liver panel (ALT, AST, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin): cholestatic injury can leave ALT and AST normal
For more on timing a draw so the numbers mean something, see our guide on when to get your testosterone tested.
Post-SARMs bloodwork and consultation
Low Testosterone After SARMs Is Testable and Treatable
If you stopped a SARM and feel flat, low testosterone is one of the first things to rule out, and it takes one blood test. Recovery varies from person to person: some men’s levels return on their own, others stay low and need medical support. Either way, you don’t have to guess.
A provider can measure where you are, explain what the numbers mean, and decide whether monitoring, lifestyle changes or treatment make sense for you. Low testosterone has well-established, medically supervised options, and the path forward depends entirely on what your labs show. The optimism here is about recovery and getting answers, not about RAD-140 itself.
What to Expect at a LaSara Consultation
Here’s how a post-SARMs visit usually goes:
- Visit: In person in Orange County, San Diego or Los Angeles, or by telehealth. [CONFIRM clinic locations and telehealth availability]
- Before: Tell the provider what you took, how long you took it, and when you stopped. The more honest the history, the more useful the review.
- Tests: Total and free testosterone, LH, FSH, estradiol, a lipid panel and a liver panel (ALT, AST, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin). [CONFIRM panel with clinic]
- Results: The provider walks you through each result in plain language and agrees the next step with you: repeat the test, keep monitoring, or start a treatment plan if your levels are low.
RAD-140 Before and After: Reported Results vs Risks
The results are the other half of the equation. Search “RAD-140 before and after” and you’ll find dramatic photos and big claims about lean mass. Almost all of those “results” are anecdotal, posted by users, and the human evidence is limited to small, early research. There are no published before-and-after promises we can stand behind, and we’re not going to show you any.
What the case literature does document is the other side of the ledger: hospital stays for liver injury, heart events in healthy young men, and testosterone that stays switched off after the cycle ends. A short-term change in the mirror is a very different thing from a liver that needs a biopsy.
RAD-140 Dosage, Cycles and Stacks: Why There Is No Safe Dose
We’re not going to give you a dose, a cycle length or a stack, and the reason isn’t squeamishness. It’s that no safe dose exists to give. RAD-140 was never approved, so there’s no established dose, no medical guidance on how much is “too much,” and no monitoring built in.
On top of that, the products are unreliable: testing repeatedly finds SARMs sold online mislabeled, under- or over-dosed, or spiked with compounds not on the label. Stacking RAD-140 with other SARMs multiplies the liver and hormone risk rather than balancing it. You’ll also see MK-677 paired with it online; MK-677 (ibutamoren) is a growth-hormone secretagogue, not a SARM, and it is not approved or safe for us to recommend either. The short version: there’s no number here we can tell you is safe.
Do You Need PCT After RAD-140?
“PCT” stands for post-cycle therapy, the idea of using drugs to restart your natural testosterone after a cycle. People ask about it because, as covered above, natural testosterone can stay low after stopping a SARM, and that feels bad.
Here’s our position. Recovery is individual, and the right response follows your own blood tests, read by a clinician. A protocol copied from a forum can’t see your numbers, and we will not name PCT drugs or doses on this page, because self-medicating one unapproved substance with another is how people get into trouble.
The safe move is to get your testosterone, LH and estradiol checked and let a clinician decide whether anything is needed. If estrogen questions come up, see our guide on using an estrogen blocker with testosterone.
Is RAD-140 Legal? Will It Fail a Drug Test?
RAD-140 has not been approved by the FDA for any use, and the agency has warned consumers about SARMs in body-building products, citing the risk of heart attack, stroke and life-threatening liver damage. It’s sold as a “research chemical,” a label that sidesteps the rules and says nothing about whether the compound is safe.
If you compete, note this clearly: RAD-140 and other SARMs are on the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List and are banned at all times for athletes. It will fail a drug test designed to catch it.
RAD-140 vs RAD-150 vs LGD-4033
People often ask how RAD-140 compares to its cousins. The short answer is that they share the same core problem.
| Compound | What it is | Approval status | Key concern |
|---|---|---|---|
| RAD-140 (Testolone) | Non-steroidal SARM | Not approved for any use | Liver injury, heart events, testosterone suppression |
| RAD-150 (TLB-150) | An ester form of RAD-140 | Not approved for any use | Same androgenic and suppression concerns as RAD-140 |
| LGD-4033 (Ligandrol) | Non-steroidal SARM | Not approved for any use | Testosterone suppression; liver injury reported |
None of these has a safety record that makes it the “better” choice. We’ll link to fuller guides on Ostarine and Ligandrol as they go live. [Internal links pending — add when published]
Safer Ways to Treat Low Testosterone
If what you’re after is more energy, drive and strength, and your levels are genuinely low, there’s a route that doesn’t run through an unapproved research chemical. Testosterone replacement therapy is an FDA-approved, prescription treatment monitored with regular bloodwork, so your hormones, lipids and other markers get tracked instead of left to chance. For a side-by-side look at how the two compare, see our guide on SARMs vs TRT. None of this is a sales pitch. If your testosterone is low, there’s a supervised way to deal with it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is RAD-140 safe?
RAD-140 is not FDA-approved and has no established safe dose. Reported harms include liver injury, heart problems and testosterone suppression. Most evidence is case reports, so the risk cannot be measured. Anyone taking it should talk to a doctor and get blood tests.
Does RAD-140 lower testosterone?
Yes, it can. SARMs signal the body to make less natural testosterone, which may cause low libido, fatigue and low mood. How low it drops, and for how long, varies from person to person, so bloodwork is the only way to find out where yours sit.
Is RAD-140 bad for the heart?
Case reports describe heart inflammation (myopericarditis) and heart failure in people using RAD-140. One case report also describes an arterial blood clot. The frequency is unknown. Chest pain, breathlessness or leg swelling needs urgent medical care.
Can RAD-140 damage your liver?
Yes. Several case reports describe severe cholestatic liver injury, with jaundice, dark urine and itching, some needing hospital care. Ask for a liver panel that includes alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin, not just ALT and AST, because ALT and AST can look normal in cholestatic injury.
Do you need PCT after RAD-140?
Many users ask this because natural testosterone can stay low after stopping. There is no approved PCT plan. A doctor should check your testosterone, LH and estradiol and decide whether any treatment is needed.
Is RAD-140 a steroid?
No. RAD-140 is a selective androgen receptor modulator, a different class from anabolic steroids, and it is not a peptide either. It acts on the same androgen receptors as testosterone, which is why it carries overlapping risks.
Is RAD-140 legal?
It is not FDA-approved and is sold as a “research chemical” rather than a medicine or supplement. The FDA has warned against SARMs in body-building products, and RAD-140 is banned for athletes under the WADA Prohibited List.
How long do RAD-140 side effects last?
The drug itself takes roughly one to two weeks to clear (its half-life is around 45 hours), but the effects can linger. Testosterone suppression and liver injury have both been reported to continue, or even worsen, after the last dose. There is no fixed timeline, so a repeat blood test is how you confirm your levels have recovered.
Worried about your levels after SARMs?
Book a LaSara consultation: bloodwork, a results review in plain language, and a plan if your levels are low. In person or by telehealth.
About the medical reviewer
Mallory Jones, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, CWHS
Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner | LaSara Medical Group
Mallory Jones is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner with over 15 years of nursing experience and a clinical focus on hormone optimization, weight management, and preventative healthcare. Since becoming a Nurse Practitioner in 2015, she has gained extensive experience in primary care, urgent care, and telemedicine.
At LaSara Medical Group, Mallory specializes in men’s testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), women’s hormone replacement therapy (HRT), GLP-1 weight management, and peptide therapies. Her clinical approach emphasizes evidence-based treatments, individualized care plans, and ongoing patient monitoring to support long-term health and wellness.
Mallory holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Walden University and maintains board certification through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), along with specialized certification in women’s health.
As a medical reviewer for LaSara, Mallory reviews educational content for clinical accuracy, helping ensure readers receive reliable, medically sound information about hormone health, weight management, and longevity treatments.
References
- Leung K, Yaramada P, Goyal P, et al. RAD-140 Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Ochsner Journal. 2022. PMCID: PMC9753945. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753945/
- Severe liver injury following use of RAD-140, a selective androgen receptor modulator, for body building. Australian Prescriber. 2024. doi:10.18773/austprescr.2024.004. https://doi.org/10.18773/austprescr.2024.004
- Myopericarditis Following Use of Selective Androgen Receptor Modifier “RAD-140”. JACC Case Reports. 2024;29(15):102423. doi:10.1016/j.jaccas.2024.102423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccas.2024.102423
- Padappayil RP, Arjun AC, Vivar Acosta J, Ghali W, Mughal MS. Acute Myocarditis From the Use of Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM) RAD-140 (Testolone). Cureus. 2022;14(1):e21663. doi:10.7759/cureus.21663. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.21663
- Skorupski WJ, Marko A, Janus M, et al. Selective androgen receptor modulator abuse-induced heart failure: catastrophic effects of RAD-140 (Testolone). Polish Archives of Internal Medicine. 2024. doi:10.20452/pamw.16770. https://doi.org/10.20452/pamw.16770
- A Surprising Complication: Arterial Thrombosis in a Patient Receiving RAD-140 (Testolone). Annals of Internal Medicine: Clinical Cases. 2025. doi:10.7326/aimcc.2025.1160. https://doi.org/10.7326/aimcc.2025.1160
- Effect of Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (OPK-88004) on Cholesterol Efflux Capacity, Size, and Subspecies of HDL Particles. PMCID: PMC9271272. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9271272/
- US Food and Drug Administration. FDA issues warning about body-building products labeled to contain steroid and steroid-like substances. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-issues-warning-about-body-building-products-labeled-contain-steroid-and-steroid-substances