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28.08.2011

Nandrolone finasteride combination increases androgenic side effects, not more effective

Chemical athletes who want to increase the effectiveness of nandrolone decanoate by adding finasteride [structural formula shown below] will be disappointed. A Population Council study shows that the combination raises the androgenic side effects of nandrolone but won't give you a single gram more muscle mass.

MENT
The Council researchers were particularly interested in a nandrolone analogue that was invented in the sixties: the anabolic steroid 7-alpha-methylnandrolone [structural formula shown below]. The methyl group of this steroid is not on the C17-alpha [as it is in methandienone] but on the C7-alpha. Its full name is 7-alpha-methyl-19-nor-testosterone, or MENT for short.

A lot of research was done in the late nineties on the male contraceptive properties of MENT. The reason for this was that low doses of MENT inhibit the production of FSH and LH. The study we refer to here was part of the MENT project. It was a piece of fundamental research in which the scientists compared MENT with testosterone, nandrolone and methyl testosterone.

In rats, the ratio between the undesirable androgenic and desirable anabolic properties of MENT was better than that ratio in testosterone but less good than the ratio in nandrolone.

Finasteride
Now part of the androgenic effect of testosterone is actually due to its metabolites. The 5-alpha-reductase enzyme converts testosterone into the androgenic dihydrotestosterone (DHT). And the same enzyme converts nandrolone into the not very active dihydronandrolone (DHN). So how does that work with MENT? To find out the researchers repeated their experiments but added finasteride, a steroid that sabotages 5-alpha-reductase.

The androgenic effects of testosterone and MENT were unaffected by finasteride, but the androgenic effect of nandrolone plus finasteride was one and a half times greater than that of nandrolone without finasteride, the researchers discovered.

The enzyme blocker had no positive effects on muscle mass. Not with testosterone, not with MENT, not with nandrolone.

Conclusion
Nandrolone and finasteride? Bad idea.

Source:
J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 1995 Jun;53(1-6):253-7.

More:
Nandrolone and stanozolol damage bodybuilders' DNA 22.08.2011
Single deca injection causes genetic damage in animal test 20.08.2011
Nandrolone at its most efficient 14.07.2010