Steroid Testosterone half life
Testosterone steroids are the answer if you’re wondering how to increase testosterone levels in the best and easiest way. Steroids are unmatched when looking for testosterone supplements to effectively boost testosterone levels. But there are so many different types of testosterone, so which is the best testosterone booster for cutting, bulking or simply TRT?
First things first, what is a testosterone half life and ester?
Testosterone half life – the time required for the concentration of the drug in the blood to halve. The half life of a substance depends on the elimination rate and absorption as a limiting factor. This indicator is important for calculations related to the construction of a steroid cycle and the conduct of post-cycle therapy.
Testosterone Ester – a chain from which the hormone is released into the blood. The shorter the chain, the faster the release of a drug into the blood and the stronger the peaks will be. The shortest testosterone form is testosterone suspension, which in fact, is pure testosterone, and there’s no ester chain at all. It is necessary to inject testosterone suspension once a day or more, which makes its use justified only as pre-training or pre-competition preparation. Now onto the most popular testosterone esters.
Testosterone half life: Propionate
Testosterone propionate – this is the shortest ester, whose half-life is up to 4 days (2-3 days in some cases). Therefore, injecting testosterone propionate is necessary every other day, since within a couple days it will give strong leaps in the concentration of the hormone in the blood and does not allow positive effects after this time. The peculiarity of propionate is that it is ideal for beginners, because of a small activity period, meaning side effects are much easier to identify and control.
If a user is faced with any testosterone propionate side effect, they can simply stop the injections. Side effects will soon subside after the drug is completely removed from the body, in contrast to the long esters that linger in the blood a month after the injection.
Also, propionate is very convenient when wanting to run post-cycle therapy immediately after the end of the cycle. For example, when running a testosterone enanthate cycle for 8 weeks, it is necessary to wait 3 weeks (the period of excretion of enanthate) before starting PCT. After a testosterone propionate cycle, it is only necessary to wait 1 week before starting PCT.
Often, testosterone propionate will provide drier gains, since its short period of action does not allow it to affect the body for a long time and, as a result, leads to very weak fluid retention. The main disadvantage of propionate is the frequency of injections. If you are only a couple of hours late with the injection, testosterone levels drop significantly.
Testosterone half life: phenylpropionate
Testosterone phenylpropionate is a less popular ester than propionate and is only really used in steroid mixes, for example, in Sustanon. But, in fact, phenylpropionate is the same propionate in most ways. It has a similar half-life of around 4-5 days so testosterone injections with this ester are also required every other day and it provides all of the same effects that propionate does.
Testosterone esters: cypionate and enanthate
Testosterone enanthate and testosterone cypionate are another two nearly identical esters. It is only the weight of the ester chain that differs (cypionate it is greater) and a slight difference in the half life of the drugs. Americans are more likely to buy Cypionate since it is more easily available in the USA. Buying testosterone enanthate is much easier in Europe.
The testosterone enanthate half life is around 7 days, and it is active in the blood for almost a month. The half life of testosterone cypionate is only slightly more at about 8 days. Both enanthate and cypionate esters require testosterone injections only 1-2 times per week.
Most often these esters are used in bulking cycles during mass gaining periods, since it is much better to hold water and to aromatize more. The most popular cycle of such testosterone is its combination with methandienone or nandrolone.
Testosterone Enanthate
Testosterone Decanoate
Testosterone Decanoate is another long testosterone ester with a half life of roughly 7 days similar to Enanthate. Therefore, the frequency of testosterone injections is the same. However, like phenylpropionate, this ester is not so popular and is usually used a part of mixes like Sustanon.
Testosterone Undecanoate
Testosterone undecanoate is the longest testosterone ester with a half life of over 20 days. It is not often the most popular to use in bodybuilding, so what is testosterone undecanoate used for? Testosterone undecanoate is very justified for TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) for men over 45 years with low testosterone symptoms. This is because the injections are required to be performed quite rarely. Testosterone undecanoate injections are only required once every 2-3 weeks.
The peculiarity of Testosterone Undecanoate is that it is also available as testosterone pills, but rather than tablets, the hormone is suspended in oil within a gel capsule, often called Andriol testocaps. The half life of oral testosterone undecanoate is merely 2 hours.