Phenylsulfinyl chloride in methylene chloride (2.5N, 2.4 ml) was added to a mixture of 17α-acetyl-17β-hydroxy-16-methyleneandrost-1,4,9(11)-trien-3-one (VB, Example 17, 1 g) in methylene chloride (10 ml) and triethylamine (0.82 ml) previously cooled to -30° over a period of 2 hrs. The reaction is plunged into phosphate buffer (pH 7, 10 ml); the phases are separated; the aqueous phase is extracted with methylene chloride; the organic phases are combined and dried over sodium sulfate and concentrated under reduced presure to an isomeric mixture of the title compound. The isomers are separated by chromatography on silica gel (50 g), eluting with acetone/hexane: 5/95 to give the title compound, NMR (CDCl3) 0.89, 1.42, 2.10, 4.03, 5.5, 6.0, 6.27, 7.20 δ.
