Proviron
(
Mesterolone)
is the closest thing we have to orally active
Dihydrotestosterone
(
DHT). It’s
basically methylated (1-methyl)
DHT. As a result, Proviron is not capable of being metabolized
(aromatized) to estrogen, and is also not progestenic. It’s actually
pretty light on the liver, and not very toxic at all, as it is not
c17-Alpha-Alkylated, but rather is 1-methylated. And of course, being a
DHT-based compound, this stuff isn't going to be great for female
athletes to use in high doses, although from interviews with females,
12.5-25mgs a day seems to be very tolerable.
Virilization
(development
of male sexual characteristics) is going to be a concern for women
daring enough to try this stuff at high doses.
Proviron
is typically thought of as a hardening agent, and as being not
very anabolic on its own. I don’t know of too many men who use it at
anything resembling high doses, but personally I’d love to see what it
can do at a 50-100mg/day dose- essentially, that’s the dose range we
see orally administered DHT compounds being used at, for an anabolic
effect. At 25mgs/day it’s going to function as a bit of an
anti-estrogen and a libido booster, but probably won’t be building much
muscle.
A very interesting fact about Proviron is that it binds very well to
SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin) which is the transport hormone
responsible for reducing the amount of circulating free testosterone in
your body.
[1]
It
actually binds to SHBG better than almost any other
anabolic steroid that I’m aware of. Proviron also binds to the Anabolic
Receptor (AR) better than any commercially available oral anabolic .
[1]
While the previous two effects are certainly desirable effects, this
oral version of DHT also has a very high affinity for binding to
receptors in the scalp and prostate, causing some possible nasty side
effects, like male pattern baldness and prostate enlargement.
So what we have here is a steroid which can possibly make other
steroids more effective by inhibiting SHBG from attaching to them, and
also has the additional benefit of reducing the amount of overall
estrogen in the body. It’s not the kind of steroid that we can base a
cycle around, but I think that those properties certainly make it
beneficial for adding it into virtually any cycle. This of course also
provides a hard, quality look to muscle that’s gained on a cycle, and
an overall improvement in the look of the physique. Also, up to
100-150mgs/day it has no depressing effect on low to normal serum FSH
and LH levels
[2]. In fact,
if your natural hormonal levels are
depressed, it may even be able to raise LH
[3],
which can then raise
your natural testosterone levels.
So
Proviron
is very synergistic, but what I’ve found from interviews
with people as well as in studies, it’s not very effective on it’s
own.
[4]
Although the genuine, brand name “Proviron” is not found frequently on
the Black and many Underground Labs don't even produce it, it’s
available as a paper anabolic, at a reasonably inexpensive cost.