the BALCO scandal

I got some requests for this, so I want to discuss this really cool androgen with an interesting backstory. Some of you may remember the BALCO scandal from 2004-05 involving the undetectable steroid “the clear.” This is it, tetrahydrogestrinone. Originally developed by my chemistry idol Patrick Arnold, it was used by many olympic and top-tier athletes(allegedly Barry Bonds) to break all types of records. Believe it or not, THG was produced using a female birth control hormone gestrinone! He simply took gestrinone, which has a triple bond on the 17th carbon(which interacts more with the estrogen and progesterone receptors) and added H2 gas, which made it a single bond(better for androgen receptor)-hence the name “tetra(4) hydro.” It still interacts with progesterone and your mineralocorticoid receptors, which may add to its potentcy. It has no estrogen effects, which makes it attractive to athletes. THG is very similar to everyone’s favorite steroid trenbolone(notice the alternating double bonds, except it has 2 ethyl groups, 1 at carbon 19 and 1 at carbon 17), and thus has very similar effects as seen by all the gold medals in the 2004 Olympics and home runs in baseball. It is more potent to binding to the AR than DHT, while only 20% of the potency for stimulating the prostate. THG was used as an oral liquid solution( PA was quoted as only a “few drops were needed to work well)), and was only discovery by the IOC/WADA bc a trainer turned a sample in. Otherwise, it may have never been discovered and baseball would still be exciting. Pretty cool and genius of PA to know chemistry and develop a brand new androgen. Sometimes, all you need is a simple modification to dramatically change a molecule’s function in the body. I have never seen a source for this, so if anyone has one DM me