Different Test Esters

I've been reading more and more into the different test esters lately and I came across this ester report which cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had about the role esters play in different products. The old saying goes,"Test is Test" but is it really?

One of the most misunderstood subjects in the world of steroids is the ester--the mechanism by which injectable esterified steroids like testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate, and Sustanon work. If you take a quick look around the Internet you will probably find countless articles that consider one form of a steroid far more effective than another. Arguments over the superiority of cypionate to enanthate, or Sustanon to all other testosterones are of course very common. Such arguments are in all practicality, baseless. In this report we'll take an authoritative look at the ester and what specifically it does to a steroid.

WHAT AN ESTER IS, AND HOW IT WORKS
I'm sure that if you have taken an interest in anabolic steroids you have noticed the similarities on the labeling of many drugs. Let's look at testosterone for example. One can find compounds like testosterone cypionate, enanthate, propionate, heptylate; caproate, phenylpropionate, isocaproate, decanoate, acetate, the list goes on and on. In all such cases the parent hormone is testosterone, which had been modified by adding an ester (enanthate, propionate etc.) to its structure. The following question arises: What is the difference between the various esterified versions of testosterone in regards to their use in bodybuilding?

An ester is a chain composed primarily of carbon and hydrogen atoms. This chain is typically attached to the parent steroid hormone at the 17th carbon position (beta orientation), although some compounds do carry esters at position 3 (for the purposes of this article it is not crucial to understand the exact position of the ester). Esterification of an injectable anabolic/androgenic steroid basically accomplishes one thing, it slows the release of the parent steroid from the site of injection. This happens because the ester will notably lower the water solubility of the steroid, and increase its lipid (fat) solubility. This will cause the drug to form a deposit in the muscle tissue, from which it will slowly enter into circulation as it is picked up in small quantities by the blood. Generally, the longer the ester chain, the lower the water solubility of the compound, and the longer it will take to for the full dosage to reach general circulation.

Slowing the release of the parent steroid is a great benefit in steroid medicine, as free testosterone (or other steroid hormones) previously would remain active in the body for a very short period of time (typically hours). This would necessitate an unpleasant daily injection schedule if one wished to maintain a continuous elevation of testosterone (the goal of testosterone replacement therapy). By adding an ester, the patient can visit the doctor as infrequently as once per month for his injection, instead of having to constantly re-administer the drug to achieve a therapeutic effect. Clearly without the use of an ester, therapy with an injectable anabolic/androgen would be much more difficult.

Esterification temporarily deactivates the steroid molecule. With a chain blocking the 17th beta position, binding to the androgen receptor is not possible (it can exert no activity in the body). In order for the compound to become active the ester must therefore first be removed. This automatically occurs once the compound has filtered into blood circulation, where esterase enzymes quickly cleave off (hydrolyze) the ester chain. This will restore the necessary hydroxyl (OH) group at the 17th beta position, enabling the drug to attach to the appropriate receptor. Now and only now will the steroid be able to have an effect on skeletal muscle tissue. You can start to see why considering testosterone cypionate much more potent than enanthate makes little sense, as your muscles are seeing only free testosterone no matter what ester was used to deploy it.

ACTIONS OF DIFFERENT ESTERS
There are many different esters that are used with anabolic/androgenic steroids, but again, they all do basically the same thing. Esters vary only in their ability to reduce a steroid's water solubility. An ester like propionate for example will slow the release of a steroid for a few days, while the duration will be weeks with a decanoate ester. Esters have no effect on the tendency for the parent steroid to convert to estrogen or DHT (dihydrotestosterone: a more potent metabolite) nor will it effect the overall muscle-building potency of the compound. Any differences in results and side effects that may be noted by bodybuilders who have used various esterified versions of the same base steroid are just issues of timing. Testosterone enanthate causes estrogen related problems more readily than Sustanon, simply because with enanthate testosterone levels will peak and trough much sooner (1-2 week release duration as opposed to 3 or 4). Likewise testosterone suspension is the worst in regards to gyno and water bloat because blood hormone levels peak so quickly with this drug. Instead of waiting weeks for testosterone levels to rise to their highest point, here we are at most looking at a couple of days. Given an equal blood level of testosterone, there would be no difference in the rate of aromatization or DHT conversion between different esters. There is simply no mechanism for this to be possible.

There is however one way that we can say an ester does technically effect potency; it is calculated in the steroid weight. The heavier the ester chain, the greater is its percentage of the total weight. In the case of testosterone enanthate for example, 250mg of esterified steroid (testosterone enanthate) is equal to only 180mg of free testosterone. 70mgs out of each 250mg injection is the weight of the ester. If we wanted to be really picky, we could consider enanthate slightly MORE potent than cypionate (I know this goes against popular thinking) as its ester chain contains one less carbon atom (therefore taking up a slightly smaller percentage of total weight). Propionate would of course come out on top of the three, releasing a measurable (but not significant) amount more testosterone per injection than cypionate or enanthate.

IN CONCLUSION
While the advent of esters certainly constitutes an invaluable advance in the field of anabolic steroid medicine, clearly you can see that there is no magic involved here. Esters work in a well-understood and predictable manner, and do not alter the activity of the parent steroid in any way other than to delay its release. Although the lure surrounding various steroid products like testosterone cypionate, Sustanon, Omnadren etc. certainly makes for interesting conversation, realistically it just amounts to misinformation that the athlete would be better off ignoring. Testosterone is testosterone and anyone who is going to tell you one ester form of this (or any) hormone is much better than another one should do a little more research, and a lot less talking.

ESTER PROFILES
Sustanon: The "king" of testosterone blends.
The four different testosterone esters in this product certainly look appealing to the consumer, there is no denying that. But for the athlete I think it is all just a matter of marketing (Hell, why buy one ester when you can get four?). In clinical situations I can see some strong uses for it. If you were undergoing testosterone replacement therapy for example, you would probably find Sustanon a much more comfortable option than testosterone enanthate. You would need to visit the doctor less frequently for an injection, and blood levels should be more steadily maintained between treatments. But for the bodybuilder who is injecting 4 ampules of Sustanon per week, there is no advantage over other testosterone products. In fact, the high price tag for Sustanon usually makes it a very poor buy in the face of cheaper testosterone enanthate/cypionate. Bodybuilders should probably stop looking at the four ester issue, and stick with totals (Sustanon is just a 250mg testosterone ampule). Were enanthate to be available for say $10 per amp of 250mg, and Sustanon priced nearly double that, buying the Sustanon would be like throwing money away. If you could get nearly double the milligram amount for the same price with enanthate, this is the better product to go with hands down. Leave the high priced stuff for the guys who don't know any better.

good stuff but i must disagree strongly with the anti-sustanon paragraph towards the end.

to utilize sustanon one must understand the time releasing mechanism that makes sustanon an interesting and unique compound.

if a proper method of frontloading is adapted, sustanon is very very effective and would probably be a better choice than other tests for a few reasons.... less injections per week and less sides.

i was a novice once too and expected good results with 500mg a week of sustanon. i expected too feel a change by week 3-4 but was dissapointed when only a small difference occured. again, sustanon must be frontloaded! there's just no other way.

satchboogie said:

good stuff but i must disagree strongly with the anti-sustanon paragraph towards the end.

to utilize sustanon one must understand the time releasing mechanism that makes sustanon an interesting and unique compound.

if a proper method of frontloading is adapted, sustanon is very very effective and would probably be a better choice than other tests for a few reasons.... less injections per week and less sides.

i was a novice once too and expected good results with 500mg a week of sustanon. i expected too feel a change by week 3-4 but was dissapointed when only a small difference occured. again, sustanon must be frontloaded! there's just no other way.

Click to expand...

Ok, I'm open to this. Please expand on the time releasing mechanism you refer above and why Sust would be an ideal candidate for frontloading.

There seems to be two different and distinct trains of thought concerning Sustanon on the boards these days.

The first one is; Because of the 4 different esters, you have to inject frequently (EOD) in order to maintain stable blood levels. This makes sense as you would think the prop would be the first to release and the first to clear, then the phenyleprop and so on.

The second one is; Sust in reality acts more like a single ester Test, providing stable blood levels from the start. This makes sense if you think of the reason it was invented, for HRT and infrequent injections, up to 3 weeks. They certainly would not want you test levels fluctuating all over the place between injections.

Personally, I look at Sust, for what it is... a LOOOONG acting ester.

Testosterone propionate 30 mg
Testosterone phenylpropionate 60mg
Testosterone isocaporate 60 mg
Testosterone decanoate 100 mg

It is really a synergetic steroid... giving better results than probably all the others (cyp, prop, and enth)... Because of the prop... it will get into the system fast, within a day... and because of the deconate, it will remain active for 3-4 weeks.

With THIS combination of esters... it is LONG acting... you cannot base your shot on JUST the propionate... sorry. You can take 500mg in one shot a week... you could even strech it to 10 days, if you wanted. I'd stick to one injection, per 7 days. You COULD take these shots mixed up 3-4 days apart... I don't think it will make much of a difference, however... especially if you mix it with an oral...

bro...

this topic has come up so many times that going over it again for the novices is just too much typing for me right now.

i'll make it as simple as i can....

my choice is sustanon. i get awesome results with no sides!!!!

with other esthers i get acne and moonface.

so that's me and if your theories prove otherwise then that's all good. i hope that it works well for you. but outta curiosity...

are you speaking from experience or from online/book reserach?

I've never frontloaded Sust. The most I've done is 750mg's a week. I got decent results throughout the whole cycle. Then again, I was stacking it with Anadrol, EQ and Winstrol. I'm not saying Sust is no good. I'm just curious to see why you feel it is only best to frontload it. That's it.

i'm way too lazy to answer in depth so here's a little link:

i will assume that everyone knows how an ester works and why one is added to the parent testosterone. With sustanon, you have 4 esters:30mg of prop60mg of phenylprop60mg of isocaproate100mg of deconateCombined to give you 250mg. Now everyone knows for themselves how much test they should take due to previous cycles or no cycles at all. Lets take each ester and see how long they will stay active in the body. 30mg of prop--Prop needs to be injected at least every other day to get the full benifits of the test. I think every third day is a little too long to wait, although some people may disagree. Now lets say you are doing a prop only cycle and injecting 30mg twice a week. You can see already that is a waste of gear. If you inject 30mg of prop twice a week you are totally wasting your time. You will NOT grow off of this, so you can basically take sus and knock it down to 220mg an amp if you are injecting once or twice a week. 60 mg of phenylprop--Phenylprop is not that much different than prop. You can get away with injecting the phenylprop ester every third day. Anyone that has taken nandrolone with a phenylprop ester knows that it is shorter acting and must be injected twice a week (for example, getwoods powder). If injected twice a week, then lets even cushion the amount, you will have all 120 mg in one week.

To recap, so far this is what you get the first week---180 mg of test in your system. If you ask me that was a waste of two amps. That is barely enough to supress the axis, and that is about all you will have happen if you inject 180mg of test per week. Now lets look at the longer acting esters in sus. 60mg of Isocaproate--Isocaproate will give you a duration of about a week before it is let go. This is not bad, but at 60 mg you are still not getting enough test to make it worth the time. 100mg of Deconate--Here is the daddy of the four esters. This is the same ester that is used in Decca-Durabolin. The deconate ester should really average out at 2 weeks, but has been said to last up to 3.This ester was added at a 100mg dose to balance out the quicker acting esters used in sustanon.

If we review one more time, we can see roughly how much test we will have in our body per week when we use sus, and hopefully you can see it is very low. You can pretty much take out the prop and phenylprop until about week 3 or 4, because once the other esters release the test and it gets time to build up in the system, the prop and phenylprop is useless. Not until around week six are you going to get your test levels high enough to do any good, and if you are on a 10 week cycle and start tapering week 8, then your test have been only relatively high for about 2-3 weeks. Call me crazy, but that is not at all what I want in a cycle. Every test cycle should be started high to hit those receptors hard, and I dont even taper at the end (but that is a different story).

The numbers that BIGDAWG and I worked on basically show that your test levels will never at one time be stable for more that a couple of weeks. Why do you think that people say they have less bloat on sus and less sides. There is so little of the short acting test in your system at one time that it is impossible to get any bloat or side effects at all. So you ask, well what is the best way to take sus then? First I would answer dont buy it. If you really want to use a 4 blend test then buy some of the old omna (not the new ones), they have more shorter acting tests in them and the blood levels will stay more equal.

If you dont believe me, ask anyone that has used the old omna and they will tell you they got quite a bit of bloat from it. Reason being is the shorter acting esters in the omna build up your blood levels quicker, hence you have the bloat factor. If someone doesnt like my first answer, then I will give them a second, "inject the sus everyday or at the least every other day." I usually get the "wholly shit, thats crazy!!!" answer. I usually tell them back, no its not crazy, its science. The actual science of sus combined with a bodybuilders needs equal injecting every day.

People seem to forget about the esters and think they are injecting all of 1750mg each week and getting every mg of it. Trust me folks, I am not talking about injecting 7 amps a week for 10 weeks, I am suggesting injecting an amp a day for 3 weeks, and letting the esters do thier work after that. When you crunch the numbers, for the first two weeks you are really only getting the prop, phenylprop, and a little of the isocaproate. Maybe about 700-750 mg for the first two weeks, and for weeks after that when all of the isocaproate and deconate kick in you will stay aroung 600-800mg for weeks following the first couple. You have a perfect taper, if you are into that, and stable test levels. If you go to eod, it will vary a bit, but not enough to really make too much of a difference.

it is so incredible that folks still have not figured out how esters and test works. I agree, it is too tiresome to make the point of how it really works but, sheesh, terms like "Isocaproate will give you a duration of about a week before it is let go" What in the heck does this mean?

For most reasonable folks, purchase the cheapest test you can get and use that! If it is sus, go for it, if it is enanthate, super! Whaterever it is shoot it more than once a week, the more often the better. end of story.

jb

Ok satchboogie, I follow the logic the behind this. By frontloading i thought you meant taking 2x the mg dosage per injection 2x per week. That's usually what's meant by frontloading. What this theory is suggesting is ED injections for the first 2 weeks. I can dig that. The math and time release on the esters makes sense that way. BTW, my question to you was not a "novice" qestion nor was I trying to lure you into some sort of debate. I was genuinely interested in the theory behind frontloading SUST for the first two weeks, which as it's laid out is more like ED injections than frontloading but I see the logic.

right on bro.

try it out your next cycle.

satchboogie said:

good stuff but i must disagree strongly with the anti-sustanon paragraph towards the end.

to utilize sustanon one must understand the time releasing mechanism that makes sustanon an interesting and unique compound.

if a proper method of frontloading is adapted, sustanon is very very effective and would probably be a better choice than other tests for a few reasons.... less injections per week and less sides.

i was a novice once too and expected good results with 500mg a week of sustanon. i expected too feel a change by week 3-4 but was dissapointed when only a small difference occured. again, sustanon must be frontloaded! there's just no other way.

Click to expand...

Basskiller really does have an informative site:

ORIGIONAL SOURCE:http://www.sover.net/~timw/ester.htm