Masteron
Pharmaceutical Name: drostanolone (as propionate)
Chemical structure: 2 alpha-methyl-17 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-androstan-3-one
Effective dose: 100 mg every 2-3 days
Average Street-price: $15-25 per ampul ($30-50 per two ampul package)
Available Doses: 50 mg/ml in 1 or 2 ml vials
Characteristics:
Drostanolone is structurally a 2-methylated form of the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is formed when testosterone interacts with the 5-alpha-reductase enzyme. DHT is dreaded by many who fear androgenic side-effects such as increased acne and body hair, loss of hair and prostate hypertrophy. 5-alpha-reduction often mediates or speeds up such processes because DHT binds to the androgen receptor 3-4 times better than testosterone. That means androgenically speaking, no steroid is quite as powerful as DHT.
For those looking to reduce body-fat and water retention such a compound is literally a dream. Drostanolone, being 5-alpha reduced, cannot form estrogen upon interaction with the aromatase enzyme yet still shows a very high affinity for it. Because it takes up so much of the aromatase enzyme, yet is refrained from actually using it by its structural make-up, it reduces the amount of estrogen formed1 from other steroids as well because there are less aromatase enzymes to be used by those compounds to form estrogen with. This made stacking with slightly aromatizing compounds such as boldenone much more bearable as it eliminated even the slight aromatisation of such substances. So for bodybuilders the use of drostanolone is not only in limiting estrogens in question, but also eliminating possible estrogen formation from other steroids used during this time for increased anabolic or anti-catabolic activity. This because, especially for larger bodybuilders, drostanolone alone does not suffice to retain the maximum amount of weight.
The reduction of estrogenic capacity of course made drostanolone ill-suited for use as a mass-builder. In fact the gains on it were quite limited. Someone seeking to gain muscle mass rarely, if ever, resorted to a DHT compound. But coupled to its extreme androgenic qualities it lead to the perfect compound to retain strength and mass while shedding body-fat. The absence of estrogen refrained it from increasing water or salt retention, and there is evidence that the androgenic component may expedite the fat loss process2. The exact mechanims by which a rise in androgens stimulates fat loss is not known, but it is theorized that it may be due to catecholamine-induced (epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine) lipolysis, caused by the androgen increasing the number of beta-adrenergic receptors (the primary triggers for fat mobilization) on the membrane surface of fat cells. It is my understanding however that the noted decrease in body-fat is mainly due to a slight increase in lean mass and a stagnation of the body-fat, automatically resulting in a loss of body-fat in percentages, after recalibration.
This would also highly promote its use for power- and weightlifters as they compete in weight classes. Drostanolone can promote the increased strength while keeping body-fat the same or even lowering it. Allowing for an increased perfomance without the risk of being cast into a higher and more difficult weight class.
One possible use for drostanolone during the off-season, when gaining mass, may be DHT's affinity for the binding proteins of sex steroids : sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and albumin. Normally a large amount of testosterone cannot be used by the body in anabolic functions because it is mostly bound to these plasma proteins. When testosterone is administered along with a DHT-compound, the DHT will take up most of the protein and allow the testosterone to exert its massive anabolic effects, thereby increasing the possible gains, especially in lower doses. Of course, due to the limited availability of drostanolone and its high price, this is the type of situation one usually resorts to mesterolone (1-methyl-DHT as in proviron) for. Its cheaper and equally effective to serve this particular purpose (but notably weaker in other aspects, since like DHT its readily deactivated in muscle tissue by the 3-alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzyme).
When discussing the side-effects, for once I'm going to go easy. This is because most people are well aware of the side-effects of DHT compounds and scared to death of them because androgenic side-effects caused by mass compounds like testosterone are largely attributed to the formation of DHT at the 5AR receptor enzyme. This may be a time to step back and look what sort of damage DHT can realistically do. An increase in acne is almost always noted, but if that doesn't seem to bother you with other steroids, then why with a short-acting androgen like drostanolone ? Hair loss seems to be the major concern, but if you've dealt with the use of steroids before or are educated to their effects you are aware that it merely speeds up a genetically pre-existing condition of male pattern hair loss (androgenetic alopecia). This condition only occurs in 30% of men and can easily be detected by examining the men on your mother's side of the family. Androgenetic alopecia is passed on through the X chromosome and thus in matri-linear fashion (mothers side). The rule of thumb being quite simple : if you have it, don't touch this compound, if you don't, then you don't have to worry. Yes, it really can be that simple.
That only leaves benign prostate hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) and the related conditions such as prostate cancer. Recent evidence shows that estrogen too is a mediator in the development of this condition, which would lead us to draw the conclusion that a purely androgenic compound, lest taken with a highly aromatizing substance, has considerably less risk for aggravating such a condition than DHT formed by testosterone. These last two paragraphs to show that perhaps the side-effects of DHT are largely exaggerated. But that doesn't mean they just went away because I said so, extreme caution needs to be exercised by individuals at risk for hair loss and prostate problems. But to add one last bit of perspective, keep in mind that this compound is injected and spread across the body evenly. When DHT is formed by testosterone, its formed in androgen specific tissues, meaning its mostly concentrated in scalp, skin and prostate, which isn't the case here.
Perhaps the most favorable effect of drostanolone is that it can increase muscle hardness and density in the athlete, giving him a more complete and finished look when he steps on stage. A lot of pure androgens have this effect. But with all of them you need an already rather low body-fat level for it to take full effect. A lot of people who had heard of this effect experimented with drostanolone and were sorely disappointed because they were too fat when they started.
Drostanolone is usually a propionate, which is a short-acting ester. That means frequent injections (every 24-48 hours) are needed for maximum effect. This can be quite a pain and cause abscesses due to the many injection marks at the same site, but this has positives too : Drostanolone propionate can be hid from detection in two weeks or less, making it safe for use up to that point without fear of being exposed at a drug test. Not that it would necessarily interrupt plans if it was, because eventhough chromatographic tests have been able to detect DHT compounds since 1997, they are rarely implemented in most sports. No doubt that gave it an edge over things like stanazolol for many athletes.
One major downside is that as time goes by the odds of finding Masteron are quite slim. It hasn't been made in quite a while and its safe to say that 90% of all you'd find out there are fakes. On some foreign markets there are some masteron analogs available, but even these are quite rare and very expensive on European and American domestic markets.
Stacking and Use:
Drostanolone is not a drug that requires the use of alternate drugs. People with a tendency for hypertension may want to take the necessary precautions, but drostanolone does not aromatize at any rate making the use of anti-estrogens irrelevant, both during a cycle to prevent side-effects as post-cycle to boost natural testosterone (E.g. Clomid). There is simply no need for alternate drugs and because its an esterified injectable there is no hazard to the liver worth mentioning either.
Best use is to inject 50-100 mg every day to every other day, depending on your degree of expertise in training and your size of course. Most beginners will be quite satisfied with either 50 mg every other day or 100 mg every 3 days. Mostly used in conjunction with other drugs as DHT is quite easily de-activated in the body (althouth drostanolone's 2-methyl group protects it somewhat from deactivation by stabilizing the 3-keto group).
Drostanolone is best stacked with something in the nature of boldenone (Equipoise) at 300 mg a week. The boldenone gives increased vascularity and the drostanolone adds muscle density while the stack as a whole preserves muscle mass. Although its rare that someone opts for a stack of two compounds with largely similar action, something can be said about stacking drostanolone with Stanazolol (Winstrol/stromba). The drostanolone doesn't stay active at the AR very much, often being drawn to SHBG, albumin, aromatase or 3bHSD, but still adds distinct hardness and boosts strength to some degree. Adding Winstrol, which has higher activity at the Androgen Receptor and some affinity for the progesterone receptor may form quite a synergistic stack. It would also be safe to throw in some nandrolone (Deca-Durabolin) at 200-300 mg per week.
One would almost never use drostanolone while trying to gain mass, except in order to block the aromatase enzyme, which forms estrogen. But a better option there is Proviron, an analog DHT-compound (mesterolone) which is basically only used for that purpose. Drostanolone is too expensive and too hard to come by to employ it for that reason.
PROVIRON
Pharmaceutical Name: Mesterolone
Chemical structure: 1 alpha-methyl-17 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-androstan-3-one
Effective dose: 25-100 mg / day orally
Average Street-price: $0.80 - 1.50 per 25 mg tab
Available Doses: 10, 20, 25 and 50 mg tabs
Characteristics:
Mesterolone is an orally active, 1-methylated DHT. Like Masteron, but then actually delivered in an oral fashion. DHT is the conversion product of testosterone at the 5-alpha-reductase enzyme, the result being a hormone that is 3 to 4 times as androgenic and is structurally incapable of forming estrogen. One would imagine then that mesterolone would be a perfect drug to enhance strength and add small but completely lean gains to the frame. Unfortunately there is a control mechanism for DHT in the human body. When levels get too high, the 3alpha hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzyme converts it to a mostly inactive compound known as 3-alpha (5-alpha-androstan-3alpha,17beta-diol), a prohormone if you will. It can equally convert back to DHT by way of the same enzyme when low levels of DHT are detected. But it means that unless one uses ridiculously high amounts, most of what is administered is quite useless at the height of the androgen receptor in muscle tissue and thus mesterolone is not particularly suited, if at all, to promote muscle hypertrophy.
Proviron has four distinct uses in the world of bodybuilding. The first being the result of its structure. It is 5-alpha reduced and not capable of forming estrogen, yet it nonetheless has a much higher affinity for the aromatase enzyme (which converts testosterone to estrogen) than testosterone does. That means in administering it with testosterone or another aromatizable compound, it prevents estrogen build-up because it binds to the aromatase enzyme very strongly, thereby preventing these steroids from interacting with it and forming estrogen. So Mesterolone use has the extreme benefit of reducing estrogenic side-effects and water retention noted with other steroids, and as such still help to provide mostly lean gains. Its also been suggested that it may actually downgrade the actual estrogen receptor making it doubly effective at reducing circulating estrogen levels.
The second use is in enhancing the potency of testosterone. Testosterone in the body at normal physiological levels is mostly inactive. As much as 97 or 98 percent of testosterone in that amount is bound to sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and albumin, two proteins. In such a form testosterone is mostly inactive. But as with the aromatase enzyme, DHT has a higher affinity for these proteins than testosterone does, so when administered simultaneously the mesterolone will attach to the SHBG and albumin, leaving larger amounts of free testosterone to mediate anabolic activities such as protein synthesis. Another way in which it helps to increase gains. Its also another part of the equation that makes it ineffective on its own, as binding to these proteins too, would render it a non-issue at the androgen receptor.
Thirdly, mesterolone is added in pre-contest phases to increase a distinct hardness and muscle density. Probably due to its reduction in circulating estrogen, perhaps due to the downregulating of the estrogen receptor in muscle tissue, it decreases the total water build-up of the body giving its user a much leaner look, and a visual effect of possessing "harder" muscles with more cuts and striations. Proviron is often used as a last-minute secret by a lot of bodybuilders and both actors and models have used it time and again to deliver top shape day in day out, when needed. Like the other methylated DHT compound, drostanolone, mesterolone is particularly potent in achieving this feat.
Lastly Proviron is used during a cycle of certain hormones such as nandrolone, with a distinct lack of androgenic nature, or perhaps 5-alpha reduced hormones that don't have the same affinities as DHT does. Such compounds, thinking of trenbolone, nandrolone and such in particular, have been known to decrease libido. Limiting the athlete to perform sexually being the logical result. DHT plays a key role in this process and is therefore administered in conjunction with such steroids to ease or relieve this annoying side-effect. Proviron is also commonly prescribed by doctors to people with low levels of testosterone, or patients with chronic impotence. Its not perceived as a powerful anabolic, but it gets the job done equally well if not better than other anabolic steroids making it a favorite in medical practices due to its lower chance of abuse.
Mesterolone is generally well liked nonetheless as it delivers very few side-effects in men. In high doses it can cause some virilization symptoms in women. But because of the high level of deactivation and pre-destination in the system (albumin, SHBG, 3bHSD, aromatase) quite a lot of it, if not all simply never reaches the androgen receptor where it would cause anabolic effects, but also side-effects. So its relatively safe. Doses between 25 and 250 mg per day are used with no adverse effects. 50 mg per day is usually sufficient to be effective in each of the four cases we mentioned up above, so going higher really isn't necessary. Unlike what some suggest or believe, its not advised that Proviron be used when not used in conjunction with another steroid, as it too is quite suppressive of natural testosterone, leading to all sorts of future complications upon discontinuation. Ranging from loss of libido or erectile dysfunction all the way up to infertility. One would not be aware of such dangers because Proviron fulfills most of the functions of normal levels of testosterone.
Stacking and Use:
Mesterolone is an oral alkylated steroid. If used primarily as an anti-aromatase drug, using it throughout a longer cycle (10-12 weeks) of injectables may elevate liver values a little bit, though much, much less than one would expect with a 17-alpha-alkylated steroid. Eventhough instead of inhibiting gains, mesterolone may actually contribute to gains. So that's a bit of a shame. Its not quite as toxic since its not alkylated in the same fashion, but at the 1 position, which reduces hepatic breakdown, but not like 17-alpha alkylation. The reason for the change of position I assume, is because alkylating at the 17-alpha position has been shown to reduce affinity for sex hormone binding proteins. This would in turn decrease its ability to free testosterone. Nonetheless the delivery rate is quite good. Its taken daily in 50-100 mg doses.
The best thing to stack it with is testosterone of course. Its most easily bound to SHBG and albumin, and deactivated for up to 98%. Since the DHT can compete for these structures with higher affinity it would naturally lead to a higher yield of whatever testosterone product you stacked it with. Since DHT levels are notably higher now there is also more stimulation of the androgen receptor causing more strength gains, and because of its affinity for aromatase the overall estrogen level decreases as well. This has as a result that gains are leaner, and once again the overall testosterone yield is increased as less I converted at the aromatase enzyme.
It's of course used in other stacks with products such as methandrostenolone, boldenone and nandrolone to reduce estrogenic activity and increase muscle hardness. The addition of proviron makes boldenone a dead lock for a cutting stack and for some may even make it possible to use nandrolone while cutting, although the use of Winstrol or a receptor antagonist in conjunction is wishful as well. The benefit of adding it to a nandrolone stack is that it may also help you reduce the decrease in libido suffered from nandrolone, since the latter is mostly deactivated by 5-alpha reductase, an enzyme that makes other hormones more androgenic.
Proviron is an anti-aromatase, so obviously anti-estrogens would be futile and redundant. Blood pressure medication for those prone to hypertension may be wise, as this DHT can increase the blood pressure.
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