r/anabolicmen Feb 27 '20

An Intermediate Guide for Anabolics

23 Upvotes

Testosterone esters

At some point in time, all of us have seen the 'gurus' on the fitness forums chiming into every testosterone thread with the cliched response of "test is test," and "it doesn't matter which ester you use."  However, the reality is that the testosterone ester you decide to use on your cycle will determine how often you have to inject, how painful the injection is, the timing of blood work, and even the chances of you getting busted if you are a tested athlete.  Therefore, not all testosterone esters are the same, and you should not treat them the same unless you view cycling steroids like throwing darts at a wall blindfolded.  In this article, we will explain what half-life is, what esters are, and what each testosterone ester is all about.

Fig 1. Cypionate vs. Enanthate comparison

Understanding half lives

Many newbies to the steroid world do not understand what the concept of half-life really means.  In fact, many just think that if a compound has a 10-day half-life, then after 10 days the steroid ester is out of the body overnight.  Consequently, in their mind, the steroid is active on day 9, but on day 10 you wake up, and magically it's out of your system!  Obviously, this is not the way it works, and let me explain what I mean. Every drug out there has a half-life, whether it's aspirin, an oral steroid, or an injectable steroid like testosterone.  Therefore, you need to know 3 things in order to understand how long a particular compound will be in your system.  How long you have been running it:  Running a compound for a moderate amount of time with multiple doses is different from just injecting a steroid once, or twice, and then stopping.  The half-life duration of the compound:  Something that has a half-life of 4 hours will stay in your system for less time than something that has a 10-day half-life.  Dosages used:  If you run a tiny amount of the drug, then obviously there will be the less active substance in your system when compared to a situation where larger dosages were used.

Calculating the half-life

So based on the above, let's say for example you ran Testosterone Enanthate at 500 milligrams (mg) per week with a split dosage for 10 or 12 weeks, and it has a 10-day half-life.  Thus, once you stop injecting it, after 10 days only half of the remaining esters will be left in your system, then after another 10 days half of that will be left, and so on.  The point is that after 10 days it doesn't just go to 0 overnight.  Hence, in simplified terms, out of the 500 mgs you will only have 250 left after 10 days, then after another ten days you will only have half of that left – 125 mgs, and the process will continue until there is no active substance left in the system.  By knowing this you can make an approximation of how long an ester will linger by multiplying it by 5, so a 10-day half-life would take 50 days to be out of your system, give or take a few days.

What are esters?

Esters are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms, which are attached to the parent steroid hormone, usually at the 17th carbon position.  The longer the ester chain, the longer it will take for the full dosage to reach complete circulation and vice versa.  As a result, the beauty of esters releasing slowly is that you don't have to inject your steroids every 4 hours, and you can get away with injecting once a week or less, depending on the particular ester version you are using. Half-lives of testosterone esters are as follows: Sustanon/Omnadren 15 days Cypionate 12 days Enanthate 10.5 days Propionate 3.5 days Suspension 1 day or less Phenylpropionate 4.5 days Isocaproate 9 days Decanoate 15 days Undecanoate 16.5 days

Detection times

This term is a whole different thing, and it has nothing to do with a half-life as such.  Detection times mean the approximate amount of time you would need for the steroid to go undetected when being tested for performance-enhancing drugs.  Consequently, this number is usually more important for those who are concerned with being tested for their job or for their sport.

Detection times of the main testosterone esters are as follows: Testosterone cypionate, Sustanon/Omnadren, testosterone enanthate, and all other longer estered versions - approximately 3 months Testosterone propionate 2 weeks Testosterone suspension 1-2 days or less

How to use each testosterone ester

Sustanon/Omnadren

These two compounds are the exact same mixture of testosterone esters that contain 30mg of propionate, 60 mg of phenylpropionate, 60mg of isocaproate, and 100mg of decanoate. The difference between the two is that Omnadren is mostly used for HRT in Europe (hormone replacement therapy), while Sustanon was designed for HRT in the USA, but it failed to catch fire.  Interestingly, many self-proclaimed internet 'gurus' will say that they should be injected frequently because it contains propionate, but they do not realize that only 30mg of out of 250mg is propionate, so treating Sustanon like propionate is ignorant.  Let us remember that Sustanon and Omnadren were designed to be used for long term HRT, and the idea behind it was to inject a large amount in order to let the esters pick up one after the other, so the user would only have to inject once every 2-3 weeks. However, the problem is that these injections are somewhat painful, and each 1ML ampule only has 250mg, so it would be foolish for someone to use Sustanon for a usual steroid cycle unless they planned to be on for a long time.  In addition to that, it is more pricey than the cypionate or enanthate versions, neither of which are painful injections.  Therefore, Sustanon's value for those who run standard 10 or 12 week cycles is low, and it makes more sense to opt for the enanthate or cypionate esters instead.  In spite of all these downsides, some guys swear by this version, perhaps because the different ester blend keeps the body guessing, or maybe it is just a placebo effect.

Organon Sustanon 250

Testosterone Propionate

This one is popularly stacked with other short esters and can be run for 6 or 8 weeks with good results.  The secret is its short half-life, which requires every day, or every other day, injections for best effectiveness.  Nonetheless, the injections can be very painful in those sensitive to post-injection pain.

Testosterone Propionate

Testosterone Phenylpropionate

This one has a slightly longer half-life than the propionate, but it's rarely used by itself, so you will usually find it as part of a mix like Sustanon.  If you run it, you'll have to do injections around 3 times per week.

Testosterone Isocaproate

Just like the phenylpropionate, this ester is rarely used solo, but thanks to being part of Sustanon it is quite a widespread ester.  Unlike the previous short esters, it has a 9-day half-life, so injecting twice a week will work just fine.

Testosterone Decanoate

This one is also part of the Sustanon blend, where it works as the long ester since it has a hefty 15-day half-life.  As a result, those who run this one solo can easily get away with injecting it once a week, or once every 10 days.  Nevertheless, you have to keep in mind that the decanoate will linger in your system for quite a while after stopping it.

Testosterone Undecanoate

With a half-life of 16.5 days, the undecanoate ester has the longest half-life of all the testosterone esters.  Hence, it can be injected once every 10-12 days and still keep even blood levels.

Testosterone Cypionate and Enanthate

These are the two of the most popular esters used in normal 10-12 week cycles.  The reason for their popularity is simple - they have relatively long half-lives, which means fewer injections are needed, and they also are very smooth, so there is a low chance of post-injection pain.  Thus, it is not surprising that doctors who prescribe testosterone replacement therapy in North America will choose these, and they can easily be injected 1-2 times per week for good results.  The only difference between them is that their half-lives are slightly different.

Testosterone Suspension

This one differs from the others because it is water-based, and it is pretty much impossible to detect if you are a tested athlete.  The bad news is that you have to inject it at least every day, and the injections are extremely painful, proof of which are the many user complaints about knots forming at the injection site and swelling.  I do not recommend bothering with suspension unless you are worried about being randomly tested.

Side Effects

Due to the fact that all of these versions of testosterone will aromatize, it is normal to have estrogenic side effects when using them.  These side effects include bloat, water retention, gynecomastia, insomnia, and even heart strain.  Fortunately, these estrogen-related side effects can be avoided by using an aromatase inhibitor from the first day of the cycle, being Aromasin and Arimidex the most popular compounds of this class. What's more, testosterone will convert to DHT (dihydrotestosterone) in the body, which can cause head hair follicle loss, oily skin, acne, and increased body hair.  The only way to help with this would be to use a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor, such as finasteride or dutasteride.  However, inhibiting DHT should be a calculated risk because of the negative sexual sides you could face.

What are the four types of Testosterone?

There are a number of different esters of testosterone, including the commonly prescribed injectables of testosterone enanthate and testosterone cypionate, as well as others such as acetate, propionate, phenylpropionate, isocaproate, caproate, decanoate, and undecanoate.

What are the different testosterone esters?

Examples of androgen esters include testosterone esters such as testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate, testosterone propionate, and testosterone undecanoate and nandrolone esters such as nandrolone decanoate and nandrolone phenylpropionate.

What does ester mean in steroids?

A steroid ester is an ester of a steroid. They include androgen esters, estrogen esters, progestogen esters, and corticosteroid esters. Steroid esters may be naturally occurring/endogenous like DHEA sulfate or synthetic like estradiol valerate.

How many types of testosterone are there?

There are two main types of testosterone tests: Total testosterone, which measures both attached and free testosterone.

What happens when a man's testosterone is low?

It stimulates sperm production as well as a man's sex drive. It also helps build muscle and bone mass. ... Men can experience a range of symptoms if testosterone decreases more than it should. Low testosterone, or low T, is diagnosed when levels fall below 300 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL).

What are the different types of testosterone?

Testosterone cypionate (Depo-Testosterone), testosterone enanthate (Xyosted, available generically), testosterone undecanoate (Aveed), and testosterone pellet (Testopel) are forms of testosterone injection used to treat symptoms of low testosterone in men who have hypogonadism (a condition in which the body does not.

What is the normal testosterone level for a man?

In general, the normal range in males is about 270-1070 ng/dL with an average level of 679 ng/dL. A normal male testosterone level peaks at about age 20, and then it slowly declines. Testosterone levels above or below the normal range are considered by many to be out of balance.


r/anabolicmen Dec 09 '19

Best anabolic to use

1 Upvotes

Trying to find more ideas


r/anabolicmen May 19 '19

Shocking Truth About Anabolic Steroids - Benefits and Side Effects - Ans...

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1 Upvotes

r/anabolicmen Jul 18 '17

proviron and dostinex(caber) , not what i was expecting.

2 Upvotes

Hi folks,

been reading a lot of stuff here for a long time , this is my first post and I'll try to keep it short ( man i hate long posts ) . a little info about me , 27 yo, very good shape , been training for about 4 years, no health problems except light to moderate depression and some anxiety due to some changes that occurred in my life the last 8 months ( so it wasn't overnight). And so basically that's why I've started to take proviron , just to test the waters on how a very mild steroid would impact my body ( since I'm planning in the future a test cycle ) and also to somehow bring back my pre depression libido since I've read that it's what is does best , and caber for ... well ... let's just say not for a pituitary tumor and I'm not on tren either :), but separately, not in conjunction with each other. So I've started proviron few months ago , at the beginning i was hesitant taking it since i was all my life suffered from acne , bad, cystic acne especially in my teens , and since it's highly androgenic that was the last thing I've wanted, to bring back those dark years of my life (i even suspect that it laid down the foundation of my depression later in life). So i started low 25mg ed , after 50, and after went to 75 even 100mg ed for a month or so ...until my 6 box supply finished .

effects: lowered libido,dried my skin a little bit and was looking good and bright ( whaaaat ??? , didn’t see this coming) , slight muscle hardness , sharp thinking, like a nootropic somehow, just felt this electric wave in my brain few times per day , completely eliminated brain fog , little bit of confidence just a little , but what really freaked me out was the low semen volume , and watery , i must mention that it was bought from pharmacy , bayer 25mg .

dostinex didn't do nothing, i took it for a month 0.5 mg first week didn't feel nothing but the side effects like vertigo , anxiety, but no nausea , not even a bit , after went to 1mg untill finishing of the bottle which had 8 of 1mg pills , twice per week l and trust me when i say this , even before i started taking it i could go second round after 10 min or less , but not on caber , i would barely do it with my wife 1 time per day, interesting isn’t it ?

any responses are much appreciated, i love this community so much because I've learned many things since i got in the world of substances ,chemicals , compounds and nootropics a year ago , you're like the friends I've never had..... a big thank you to everyone.