Ah gotcha, thanks. Yeah I've researched that and it's just a matter of putting everything together and making sense to me, especially with all the different shortened names everyone uses. Just to make sure I'm on the right track, there's a few other esters like deca that's combined with testosterone, and some are more potent and have more potential for side effects (deca dick, gyno, acne, etc), right? I know most side effects can be avoided with the proper PCT ready, and stopping your cycle as soon as something goes wrong.
When people say "deca" they are actually referring to the hormone Nandrolone with a decanate ester attached to it. Instead of calling it Nandolone deca like they should they shorten it to just deca. Nandrolone is a hormone just like testosterone is, however its effects are entirely different. The ester chosen doesn't change the side effects, that depends on what actual steroid your taken and at what dose.
Test E only comes in an injectable form or can it be taken orally? This seems like my best bet right now since everyone is recommending this.
No you cant drink it you have to inject it.
Also, does anyone know of a HCGenerate alternate?
Double dose of Bridge
Bold.
A little info on esters...
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. By adding an ester, injections can be as infrequent as once per week or longer, instead of having to constantly re-administer the drug to achieve the desried effect. Clearly without the use of an ester, maintaining constant blood levels 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 up to 15 days+/- 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. Likewise
testosterone suspension is the worst in regards to
gyno and water bloat because blood hormone levels peak so quickly with this drug (propionate included). 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.