extremely important post on ESTERS

BY SKYEFIRE

First the disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a professional, I just write stuff for role-playing purposes to pass the time. The post is not guaranteed for anything except taking up bandwidth! Having said that lately it seams that there is a lot of misinformation about how they work, what ester is preferable and so on. While there are no hard and fast rules here there are general principles that apply. This is an attempt to correct some of the big misconceptions.

First misconception: The weight of an ester determines the half-life. No, it is the length of an ester that AFFECTS the half-life. This is easily seen in the lack of difference in the half-lives of testosterone phenyl propionate vs. testosterone propionate. The first ester has a MW of 150 the second has a MW of 74. They have almost identical half-lives but the phenyl propionate has the weight of the phenyl group add to it but the same length of the propionate. It doesn’t make much of a difference.

Second misconception: The ester used determines the half–life, NO. I am not sure why this is so set in people’s minds but esters are only part of the picture. An ester modifies the partition coefficient but it does not determine it. The partition coefficient is a fancy term that describes the ratio of oil solubility to water solubility. Almost anything is water miscible to some part, even if very small. This includes the hormones we use as well as the ester of them. This the more lipophilic (that is oil soluble, I am simplifying here) the less LIKELY the hormone is to enter into water and be hydrolyse (hydrolysis is the term for the removal of the ester from the base, again this is a simplification of the process). That is why hormones have half-lives, their absorbs ion is based on probability and therefore follows the same pattern as decaying uranium, rolling of the dice, and cards. Contrary to popular belief this is true of the base hormones as well as the estered ones. The esters only modify the ratio (decrease the probability of going into water) For a more complete article on this (its old but still a good read) go read https://www.mesomorphosis.com/articl...roid-esters.htm. While it doesn’t go into the mechanics too much it is still the best one I have seen.

While the above is a major factor if you want an accurate estimate of the half-life have to include the solubility of the hormone base you’re using, the length of the ester, the solution that the hormone is suspended in, the biology of the person being injected, and the placement of the depot.

1st. The base solubility hormone is just that, how well it will go into solution, water or oil. What its partition coefficient is to start with. Nandrolone is more lipophobic then testosterone, therefore tends to have a shorter half live then testosterone even with the same ester (see number 2 for more info on this).

2nd. The length of an ester determines how much the partition coefficient is modified (outside of any other influences). The length is usually given in the number of carbon atoms, formate 1, acetate 2, propionate and phenyl propionate 3, butyrate 4, valerate 5, hexanoate, caproate, and isocaproate 6, heptanoate and enanthate 7, octanoate and cypionate 8, nonanoate 9, decanoate 10, undecanoate 11. What’s more the degree that the ester modifies the base per carbon increases with the ester length. To put it another way the longer the esters the more it dominates the properties. For instance the half-life of nandrolone cypionate is less then that of its testosterone counterpart but the difference between testosterone decanoate and nandrolone decanoate is nil (in theory, no one has measured the half life of nandrolone cypionate to my knowledge. But it works well in practice).

3rd. The solution that the hormone is carried in also makes a big difference. Simply put the more hydrophobic your solution your solution the harder it is for the hormone to enter into water. So if you have testosterone enanthate in caster oil with lots of benzyl benzoate you can have a half-life of around 12 days. On the other hand if you use polyethylene glycol or glycerol with no hydrophobic solvents you can have a half-life of less then 8 days. The goes for all hormones. This is due to the reduction (or induction for the hydrophilic solvents) of exposure to water. The less exposure to water the longer the half-life. The more exposure to water the shorter the half-life.

4th. The biology of the person being injected, and the placement of the depot can also affect things. The first part is simple, people with faster metabolisms process things faster then people with slow metabolisms. More enzymes and faster processing of the metabolites will break down the depot faster, this exposing more of the esters to water. Another considerate is where the depot is located. Most people don’t think of this but if you place (inject) the depot into an often-used muscle the increased agitation is going to expose more of the hormone to the water. Its like mixing two difficult to-mix liquids together, by hand is going to take a lot longer then if you use a mixer. For most people this isn’t a consideration and site rotation take care of it but it is a consideration if you’re a long distance runner shooting in the legs or a boxer shooting in the triceps. This is another reason site rotation is important; it evens out the release of the hormones.

Third misconception: All ester of testosterone are equal. Well this looks good on paper and I don’t know of a reason why but it doesn’t equate to the experience of the people using it. For instance, some (crazy) hardcore uses have been known to run 150mg of trenbolone acetate a day, that’s a gram a week. No one that I know of has gotten away with running that much trenbolone enanthate, its simply too much (I’m sure someone has, there is always one idiot that will do something like that). Another one, testosterone propionate is said to hold less water the its heavier estered counterparts. Given that most people use an every day or every other day injection schedule there is no reason for this to be true. Injecting both hormones daily should in theory negate any differences between them. Ether the body building community is just wrong about this (it would not be the first time) or there is some other action that we do not yet understand. My personal belief is that it’s our understanding that needs work.

Forth misconception: Sustonon is better then a single ester testosterone being that it is a smooth blending of esters. This one is BS from the word go. First off it never did what it was intended to do anyway. It was designed to be used as a once a month hormone replacement therapy once a month shot. The idea here was that the short esters would kick in first with the long esters kicking in as time went on. It doesn’t work this way at all. All esters have their initial peak release rates somewhere between 12 and 36 hours depending on the solution/carrier used. That means that the test testosterone propionate and the testosterone decanoate start releasing at the same time. The testosterone propionate simply releases faster. So what you have is an injection that is suppose to last a month but depletes almost 50% (the short esters make 36% of the formula) of its testosterone the first week. That not exactly even by any standard. Some people claim that to use Sustonon effectively you need to take it every other day. That might be a bit of an overkill as 875mg a week is a bit high for a first steroid cycle but I would not use less then every third day or 583mg a week to prevent your test levels from dropping to much. Also there is nothing that smooth about the blend of esters, 36% are short, 24% medium and 40% long. That would be a 4.5, 9 and 15 day half-lives, not exactly balanced.

Fifth misconception: It takes awhile for your blood levels to build up. I am not sure where this came from, as the blood levels would only indicate your free testosterone any ways. But its not your blood levels that have to build up, it’s the esterified hormone in the depot that have to build up. Simply put you have to have a certain amount of hormone in the places you injected for the release rate to equal the dosage you desire. This is because the depot is releasing the hormone at a slower rate then your injecting it. So over time the amount of hormone in the depot increases until you get to a point (depending on the half-life, the longer it is the larger the depot needs to be. It’s the same principle behind a uranium pile) For instance if your using testosterone cypionate at 500mg a week you would have to have 1,962.5mg in depot to have an actual 500mg a week released. And at 500mg a week you’re only going to get to about 76% of that by week four, or 382mg released a week. Of course with this much testosterone your free testosterone is going to be going through the roof but it’s not really an indication of the amount of test being released.

Sixth misconception: Short esters of testosterone are better for cutting. Why? The only stated differences are really the anabolic affect and the amount of water they cause you to retain. None of which affect the amount of fat you lose or the amount of muscle you keep. In fact one of the best cutting drug (due to its anti-carbolic effects) is methandrostenolone, what some people call d-bloat due to the amount of water retention it can cause (this its not used much for cutting). There are benefits and cons to both long and short esters; it really is a matter of preference.

Seventh misconception: Short esters are better then long esters testosterone or vice versa. Well that depends on what you want. Some of the shorter esters may cause you hold less water and some may give better muscle and weight gains. The key word here is “may”. There are some proven benefits and cons to both. Pros for the long esters are fewer injects hence less scar tissue, automatic tapering of your dosages, far less likely to be painful upon injection, tend to mask irritating hormones like boldenone, and possibly a stronger anabolic affect. Cons include possibly high rate of water retention, a long period of time for the depot to build up to a level that the desired dosage is released, and most importantly there is a ramp down time (time it take the hormone to clear from the body) before you can start post cycle therapy. With the long ester that can be up to 3 weeks in which you don’t have the benefits of the steroid while you can’t start doing what you need to regain your natural testosterone levels. The benefits of a short ester testosterone are that you can avoid that extra time because you can start the post cycle therapy immediately after you stop the injections (By the time the drugs used for post cycle build up the testosterone level is low enough for the body to start producing). The cons are daily or every other day injections as well as increased pain of injection. For myself I like the best of both worlds, use the long esters for the main part of the cycle and then switch to the short ester for the last couple of weeks.
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