Orals

Dianabol (Methandienone)

Updated · 22 sources · Editorial policy

Methandienone, also called methandrostenolone or metandienone, is an oral anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) best known under CIBA’s brand name Dianabol. Chemically it is methyltestosterone with one extra double bond in the A-ring. It was studied from the 1960s to the 1980s in osteoporosis and other conditions, and it has long been used outside medicine by athletes and bodybuilders.

The key fact today is that methandienone is not an FDA-approved drug in the US. It is a Schedule III controlled substance, and it is banned at all times in sport. Most of the human evidence comes from small trials run more than 40 years ago, plus case reports of harm.

This page summarizes what those trials, case reports and regulators report. It is for education only and is not medical advice.

Property Detail
Drug class 17α-alkylated anabolic-androgenic steroid (testosterone derivative)
Brands Dianabol (CIBA); also sold as Anabolin, Nerobol and others
Route Oral
Doses in cited trials 2.5–100 mg/day
Half-life No measured plasma half-life found in published human studies
Urinary excretion Free metabolites peak 4–12 h after a dose; conjugated metabolites peak 12–34 h
Rat anabolic:androgenic index About 3 (vs oral methyltestosterone)
US status Not FDA-approved; Schedule III controlled substance
WADA status Prohibited at all times (S1.1 anabolic androgenic steroids)

What it is

Methandienone’s chemical name is 17α-methyl-17β-hydroxyandrost-1,4-dien-3-one (21 CFR 1308.13). Its formula is C₂₀H₂₈O₂ and its molecular weight is 300.4 g/mol (PubChem). PubChem also lists it as “1-dehydromethyltestosterone.” It differs from testosterone in two ways:

Change What it does
17α-methyl group Blocks breakdown on the first pass through the liver, so the drug works when swallowed. The same feature is linked to liver toxicity across this class (Kicman, Br J Pharmacol 2008).
Extra 1,2 double bond in the A-ring Makes it a 1,4-diene steroid. This is the difference from methyltestosterone.

Trials from the 1970s name the drug as “Dianabol, CIBA” (Freed and Banks, Br J Sports Med 1975). A 2008 review noted that methandienone was still sold as a medicine in many countries, even though it has no US approval (Kicman 2008).

About anabolic:androgenic ratios. In the classic rat assay, methandienone showed 0.60 times the muscle-building activity of oral methyltestosterone and 0.20 times its androgenic activity, an index of about 3 (Kicman 2008, citing Potts et al. 1976). The same review notes that the rat levator ani muscle used in this assay is a poor stand-in for human muscle. A rat index does not show that the drug is “mostly anabolic” in people.

About estrogen claims. Online sources often say methandienone converts to a potent estrogen and that this explains water retention and breast growth. We could not find a published human study that measured this conversion, so we do not report it as established fact.

Pharmacokinetics

Methandienone is taken by mouth. We found no published human study that measured its plasma half-life, so commonly quoted half-life figures could not be verified. What has been measured is how its breakdown products appear in urine.

Finding Detail
Free (unconjugated) urinary metabolites Peak excretion 4–12 h after an oral dose (Schänzer et al. 1991)
Conjugated urinary metabolites Peak excretion 12–34 h after an oral dose
Long-term doping marker Detected up to 19 days after a single 5 mg dose (Schänzer et al. 2006)

The urinary metabolites identified show that the body reduces the A-ring and adds hydroxyl groups to the molecule. The 19-day detection window concerns one metabolite found by sensitive anti-doping tests. It does not mean the drug stays active for that long.

Regulatory status

  • United States. No methandienone product is listed in FDA’s Drugs@FDA database, so there is no approved prescription product. Methandienone is named as a Schedule III anabolic steroid in federal regulations (21 CFR 1308.13(f)).
  • Sport. The WADA 2026 Prohibited List names metandienone under S1.1 anabolic androgenic steroids. It is prohibited in and out of competition and is a non-specified substance (WADA 2026 List).

Exact dates for when CIBA’s Dianabol entered and left the US market are widely repeated online. We could not confirm them in an FDA or Federal Register record, so we do not give them here.

What the research shows

Trained men and athletes

Several small double-blind crossover trials tested methandienone in men who were training. Each man took the drug during one period and placebo during another.

Trial Participants Dose and duration Main findings
Freed et al., BMJ 1975 13 experienced weightlifters 10 or 25 mg/day, crossover Greater performance gains on drug than placebo; weight gain that seemed linked to water retention; systolic blood pressure rose; 3 men withdrew because of side effects
Hervey et al., Lancet 1976 11 men in weight training 100 mg/day for 6 weeks, crossover +3.3 kg body weight vs placebo period, all lean; strength and performance not significantly different from placebo
Hervey et al., Clin Sci 1981 7 weightlifters 100 mg/day for 6 weeks, 6-week washout +2.3 kg weight; body weight, leg strength and muscle size rose on drug but not on placebo

The two Hervey trials raise a question about what the weight gain actually is. Total body potassium and nitrogen rose far more than a 2–3 kg gain of normal muscle would explain. The 1981 authors concluded that the drug’s effect “might be described as anabolic,” but that the added weight “is not normal muscle.”

The Hervey trials used 100 mg/day. These trials were small, short and decades old, and none were designed to measure long-term safety.

Osteoporosis and older adults

Methandienone was tested as a bone drug, with mixed results:

  • Postmenopausal osteoporosis, 26 months. In a double-blind trial of 26 women, total body calcium rose 2% on methandienone and fell 3% on placebo among those who finished (p under 0.01) (Chesnut et al., Metabolism 1977). Only 16 of the 26 completed the study.
  • Osteoporosis, 24 months. A second double-blind trial found a rise in total body potassium, a marker of lean tissue, but no significant change in bone mass apart from a small difference at 6 months (Aloia et al., Metabolism 1981).
  • Elderly patients, 9 months. A factorial trial gave 327 people over 65 (mean age 79.5) calcium, vitamin D3, methandienone 2.5 mg/day, or placebos in every combination (Inkovaara et al., Age Ageing 1983). Fractures did not differ significantly. Coronary deaths were unexpectedly higher with combined treatments, most significantly with vitamin D3 plus methandienone (p under 0.001).

Side effects and risks

Hormonal suppression

Methandienone shuts down the body’s own testosterone production. In 16 trained athletes, 15 mg/day for 2 months caused these changes (Holma and Adlercreutz, Acta Endocrinol 1976):

Hormone Change
Testosterone −69% (29.4 to 9.1 nmol/L, ≈ 848 to 262 ng/dL)
LH (luteinizing hormone) About −50%
FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) About −50%

LH and FSH are the pituitary signals that drive the testes to make testosterone and sperm. The 100 mg/day Hervey trial also found lower plasma testosterone and higher cortisol on the drug.

Liver

The NIH LiverTox database states that many synthetic androgens can cause cholestatic liver injury (blocked bile flow). It also links long-term use to hepatic adenoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and peliosis hepatis (blood-filled cysts in the liver) (LiverTox). Published methandienone cases include:

  • a 19-year-old man treated with methandienone for 3 years who bled into the abdomen from a ruptured benign liver adenoma (Hernandez-Nieto et al., Cancer 1977);
  • a 50-year-old man who, after an 8-week course of non-medical use, developed cholestatic jaundice (bilirubin 922 µmol/L), acute pancreatitis (lipase peaking over 3,000 U/L) and acute kidney injury (Rosenfeld et al., J Med Case Rep 2011).

Cholesterol

In 14 bodybuilders and weightlifters using methandrostenolone 50–100 mg/day together with injected testosterone and nandrolone, HDL (“good”) cholesterol averaged 29 mg/dL on steroids vs 61 mg/dL off them. LDL averaged 150 vs 125 mg/dL (Webb et al., Metabolism 1984). Because the men used several drugs, the share caused by methandienone alone is unknown.

Glucose and insulin

In 9 patients studied off and on methandienone, glucose tolerance worsened and insulin sensitivity fell by a factor of about 4 on treatment (Godsland et al., Clin Sci 1986). Fasting glucose and insulin were, unusually, lower on the drug.

Blood pressure and fluid

In the 1975 BMJ trial, systolic blood pressure rose significantly and the weight gain appeared to be partly water (Freed et al. 1975). All side effects resolved after the drug was stopped.

Interaction with blood thinners

A 1963 report described decreased tolerance to anticoagulants during methandrostenolone therapy (Pyörälä and Kekki, Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1963). For a quantified example of this kind of interaction with a related oral steroid, see the warfarin section of the oxandrolone page.

Quality and contamination

Because no approved product exists in the US, anything sold as Dianabol there comes from outside the regulated supply. Brazilian Federal Police analyzed 345 seized steroid products (Neves and Caldas, Forensic Sci Int 2017):

  • about 42% of the medicines were counterfeit, including 28.7% of tablets;
  • 11% were substandard;
  • two “dietary supplements” contained undeclared methandrostenolone at 5.4 and 5.8 mg per capsule.

Key takeaways

  • Methyltestosterone with an extra double bond. The 17α-methyl group makes it work orally and ties it to the liver risks of this steroid class.
  • Not an approved drug in the US. It is Schedule III and is banned at all times by WADA.
  • Old, small trials. At 100 mg/day, men gained 2–3 kg in 6 weeks, but strength gains vs placebo were inconsistent and the gained tissue did not look like normal muscle.
  • Strongly suppressive. Even 15 mg/day cut testosterone by 69% and LH and FSH by about half in 2 months.
  • Liver, lipids and glucose are the documented risks. Case reports include liver tumors and severe cholestasis. HDL fell by more than half in men combining it with other steroids.
  • Half-life is not well measured. No published human study reports its plasma half-life, and black-market products are often counterfeit.

Sources

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  2. Drug Enforcement Administration. 21 CFR 1308.13, Schedule III, paragraph (f) anabolic steroids. eCFR.
  3. World Anti-Doping Agency. World Anti-Doping Code International Standard: Prohibited List 2026. WADA.
  4. Food and Drug Administration. Drugs@FDA: FDA-approved drugs database. FDA.
  5. Kicman AT. Pharmacology of anabolic steroids. Br J Pharmacol. 2008;154(3):502–521. PMC.
  6. Schänzer W, Geyer H, Donike M. Metabolism of metandienone in man: identification and synthesis of conjugated excreted urinary metabolites, determination of excretion rates and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric identification of bis-hydroxylated metabolites. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 1991;38(4):441–464. PubMed.
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  8. Freed DL, Banks AJ. A double-blind crossover trial of methandienone (Dianabol, CIBA) in moderate dosage on highly trained experienced athletes. Br J Sports Med. 1975;9(2):78–81. PubMed.
  9. Freed DL, Banks AJ, Longson D, Burley DM. Anabolic steroids in athelics: crossover double-blind trial on weightlifters. Br Med J. 1975;2(5969):471–473. PubMed.
  10. Hervey GR, Hutchinson I, Knibbs AV, et al. “Anabolic” effects of methandienone in men undergoing athletic training. Lancet. 1976;2(7988):699–702. PubMed.
  11. Hervey GR, Knibbs AV, Burkinshaw L, et al. Effects of methandienone on the performance and body composition of men undergoing athletic training. Clin Sci (Lond). 1981;60(4):457–461. PubMed.
  12. Holma P, Adlercreutz H. Effect of an anabolic steroid (metandienon) on plasma LH-FSH, and testosterone and on the response to intravenous administration of LRH. Acta Endocrinol (Copenh). 1976;83(4):856–864. PubMed.
  13. Chesnut CH 3rd, Nelp WB, Baylink DJ, Denney JD. Effect of methandrostenolone on postmenopausal bone wasting as assessed by changes in total bone mineral mass. Metabolism. 1977;26(3):267–277. PubMed.
  14. Aloia JF, Kapoor A, Vaswani A, Cohn SH. Changes in body composition following therapy of osteoporosis with methandrostenolone. Metabolism. 1981;30(11):1076–1079. PubMed.
  15. Inkovaara J, Gothoni G, Halttula R, et al. Calcium, vitamin D and anabolic steroid in treatment of aged bones: double-blind placebo-controlled long-term clinical trial. Age Ageing. 1983;12(2):124–130. PubMed.
  16. Godsland IF, Shennan NM, Wynn V. Insulin action and dynamics modelled in patients taking the anabolic steroid methandienone (Dianabol). Clin Sci (Lond). 1986;71(6):665–673. PubMed.
  17. Webb OL, Laskarzewski PM, Glueck CJ. Severe depression of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in weight lifters and body builders by self-administered exogenous testosterone and anabolic-androgenic steroids. Metabolism. 1984;33(11):971–975. PubMed.
  18. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. LiverTox: Androgenic Steroids. Updated May 30, 2020. PubMed.
  19. Hernandez-Nieto L, Bruguera M, Bombi J, Camacho L, Rozman C. Benign liver-cell adenoma associated with long-term administration of an androgenic-anabolic steroid (methandienone). Cancer. 1977;40(4):1761–1764. PubMed.
  20. Rosenfeld GA, Chang A, Poulin M, Kwan P, Yoshida E. Cholestatic jaundice, acute kidney injury and acute pancreatitis secondary to the recreational use of methandrostenolone: a case report. J Med Case Rep. 2011;5:138. PubMed.
  21. Pyörälä K, Kekki M. Decreased anticoagulant tolerance during methandrostenolone therapy. Scand J Clin Lab Invest. 1963;15:367–374. PubMed.
  22. Neves DBDJ, Caldas ED. GC-MS quantitative analysis of black market pharmaceutical products containing anabolic androgenic steroids seized by the Brazilian Federal Police. Forensic Sci Int. 2017;275:272–281. PubMed.