Trestolone Acetate (MENT): 7 alpha-Methyl-19-nortestosterone profile
by Anthony Roberts
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in Trestolone Acetate (a/k/a 7 alpha-Methyl-19-nortestosterone, or MENT), due to it’s sudden availability thanks to the efforts of several black market hormone suppliers. Until recently, we’d mostly heard about this steroid through Bodybuilding.com’s now defunct steroid profiles written by Pete Von Mol. And actually, this is rightly where the underground story of Trestolone Acetate, or MENT, as he called it, begins. with him telling the reader:
“MENT has always been my favourite steroid, and that’s just from reading the studies and looking at the structure of it. Thinking of what MENT can do should make every steroid user drool”
The key words here are “steroid” and “user” – because the author of those words – which have been copied and pasted on hundreds of discussion boards – has never actually used steroids. Right…So this guy who is talking about his favorite steroid (which he has never used), is also a guy who has never used any steroids at all. If you end up making it to the end of the profile, what you’ll find is this:
Keep in mind that there are very few real world results with MENT on humans, and there is no literal data on its hypertrophic ability, so a lot of this is hypothetical, based on the available studies and evidence.
Of course, at the time of that original writing, this particular steroid wasn’t even available on the black market, so not only had the author not even tried the drug, but he didn’t know anyone who had tried it either. Nonetheless, with the Internet being the wonderful place that it is, demand for MENT was stimulated by Pete’s glowing endorsement, and that demand stayed high until present day, when we now have several underground labs releasing their own versions of it. Awesome.
I mention this mainly because it amuses me, but also because it’s important to realize where the demand for this steroid came from.
Chemically speaking, it’s actually an alright looking drug. It doesn’t show much interaction with Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (J Med Chem. 1992 May 29;35(11):2113-29.), which means that a good portion ought to stay unbound and active in the blood. Also, the drug is a potent binder to the androgen receptor (J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 1999 Dec 31;71(5-6):213-22.), while showing minimal affinity for the progesterone and mineralocorticoid receptors respectively (J Med Chem. 1992 May 29;35(11):2113-29.). Since it is not able to be 5a-reduced into a dihydro-version, it likely wouldn’t cause many of the side effects commonly associated with Dihydrotestosterone. This is also a likely reason that it is less apt to cause prostate enlargement, and may even be indicated for the treatment of specific prostate issues (Ann Med. 1993 Apr;25(2):199-205.)
But the part that would likely thrill most steroid users is the following (quoted directly from a study comparing MENT with Testosterone):
The ability of 7 alpha-methyl-19-nortestosterone acetate (MENT) to increase the weights of ventral prostate and seminal vesicles of castrated rats was four times higher than that of testosterone, while its effect on the weights of bulbocavernosus plus levator ani muscles (muscle), was 10 times that of testosterone.(Endocrinology. 1992 Jun;130(6):3677-83.)
When we talk about the androgenic rating of a steroid (any steroid), we’re actually talking about its ability to increase the weight of the ventral prostate. In many cases, this score (compared to testosterone, which is scored at 100 for its androgenic rating) gives us a clue as to how much of an androgenic effect a given steroid will have on a user. And when we’re talking about androgenic effects, we’re specifically talking about the development of male secondary sexual characteristics. Naturally, when we look at the hypertrophy of the levator ani muscle, we’re seeing the anabolic effect of this steroid…which, according to the quoted research was found to be 10x that of testosterone.
Ten times as anabolic as testosterone!
Is this a deceiving statement? Of course it is. Remember, this is rodent data, and we can point to numerous other drugs that, on paper, have a higher anabolic rating than testosterone, while producing negligible results in real life. Remember, you may write out your cycles on a piece of paper, but that’s not where you actually do them; you do them in real life. Still, judging from the feedback I’ve received from users who have tried it, we’re looking at a nice, potent, anabolic, with a complimentary androgenic factor.
Both Nandrolone and Trenbolone are cousins to MENT, and are very useful on either cutting or bulking cycles. From the current feedback from users who have tried MENT, it would appear that it too lends itself equally to both uses. Because this drug is currently only available with a short acting ester (thereby causing it to remain active for only a couple of days), the majority of feedback I’ve seen is from its use on cutting cycles. Feedback has been positive, but nothing compared to the fanfare it received for the decade prior to its market release.
Unfortunately, the same study that tells us that MENT is 10x as anabolic as testosterone, and 4x as androgenic, also tells us that MENT is 12x as suppressive to serum gonadatropins as testosterone. For this reason, it is very appealing to scientists who have studied it for use as a male contraceptive – and ended up calling it “The Optimal Androgen for Male Contraception” (Ann Med. 1993 Apr;25(2):199-205.). In addition, and partly owing to its inability to be 5a-reduced, MENT is converted (via the aromatase enzyme) to a very potent form of estrogen – which can cause gynecomastia (enlarged breast tissue in males), and several other nasty side effects.
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