Cranion
roids or surgery is the only way
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Testosterone is a hormone naturally produced in male and female bodies.
Estrogen is a hormone naturally produced in the male and female bodies.
SHBG binds to testosterone, making it bound testosterone.
TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) is the practice of using exogenous (out-of-body) testosterone to replace insufficient or suboptimal natural testosterone production.
Testosterone dosing can be determined via the milligram per kilogram approach, or arbitrarily.
Testosterone exerts anabolic and androgenic action all over the human body, to greater or lesser degrees depending on the genetic sensitivity to testosterone of the individual.
Anabolism refers to building muscle, androgenicity refers to masculinizing effects.
Esters are modifications to compounds to alter how long it takes the body to process them.
Half life is the time it takes the body to halve the amount of a compound in its system.
Example, injecting 100mg testosterone cypionate once per week for demonstration purposes:
The Steroid Family Tree - All AAS are divided into three categories with general properties:
DHT derivatives don’t aromatize into estrogen, & can’t be 5ar into DHT.
When AAS are introduced into the human body, natural testosterone production is suppressed.
- It can be “aromatized” by the aromatase enzyme and turned into estrogen, primarily thought of as a type of estrogen called “estradiol” (also known as E2).
- It can be “5-alpha-reduced” (5ar) by the 5-alpha reductase enzyme and turned into dihydrotestosterone.
- Example, an aromatase inhibitor can make some aromatase enzymes inactive. This results in less estrogen, because there are less opportunities for the reaction (aromatization) to occur.
Estrogen is a hormone naturally produced in the male and female bodies.
- Two relevant forms: estrone (E1), a weaker estrogen; and estradiol (E2), a stronger estrogen. When people talk about “estrogen”, they’re mainly referring to estradiol
- It is critical for brain health, sexual wellness, mood, cognition, complexion, and health
- Example, introducing an aromatase inhibitor in a man with high estrogen but no intolerable effects would be an unreasonable approach
SHBG binds to testosterone, making it bound testosterone.
- When bound, testosterone is shuttled by SHBG to regions of the body that need the testosterone, and it is prevented from binding to anything else along the way
- Free testosterone is testosterone not bound by SHBG, allowing it to interact with any androgen receptor sites as soon as it encounters them
- Total testosterone is not always indicative of how well you will accrue muscle/strength, and the same is true about free testosterone - but they are both correlated with it
TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) is the practice of using exogenous (out-of-body) testosterone to replace insufficient or suboptimal natural testosterone production.
- TRT dosing protocols can range from 1mg per kg to 3mg per kg or more per week, depending on the genetic makeup of the individual
- TRT may be prescribed as pellets inserted under the skin, topical gels, or injectable testosterone - injectable testosterone being the most effective administration by far
- “Most men can handle testosterone at 300mg/wk for the rest of their life with minimal complications, assuming health is responsibly managed” - Broderick Chavez
- Example, a man who uses 300mg/wk may have total testosterone levels of 1200ng/dl, whereas another man who uses the same dose may have 2700ng/dl
- Generally, most men convert injected milligrams of testosterone to ng/dl total testosterone results on blood work around a 3x to 7x rate; 5x on average.
Testosterone dosing can be determined via the milligram per kilogram approach, or arbitrarily.
- No dosing practice is necessarily more correct than the other
- The best dose is the one that your body responds to the best - everyone has their own sweet spot which changes as their physique & goals change
- This is a very common practice in modern medicine—the theory is that anabolic applications can successfully mimic this
- For beginners, it is exceptionally more successful at landing in the user’s sweet spot than the arbitrary approach
- Very generalized ranges for reference:
- 1mg/kg is western medicine TRT
- 2mg/kg is modern TRT
- 3mg/kg is optimized TRT or beginner cycle
- 4mg/kg is sports TRT or beginner cycle
- 5mg/kg is a mild cycle, etc
- Example, 4mg/kg for a 90kg male would yield a testosterone dose of 360mg/wk
Testosterone exerts anabolic and androgenic action all over the human body, to greater or lesser degrees depending on the genetic sensitivity to testosterone of the individual.
Anabolism refers to building muscle, androgenicity refers to masculinizing effects.
- You may have seen an anabolic:androgenic ratio for each steroid, but this metric is largely useless because of how it is determined in rats
- Androgenicity includes even undesirable “masculinizing” effects, such as male pattern baldness (hence the official name, “androgenic alopecia”), and excess body hair
Esters are modifications to compounds to alter how long it takes the body to process them.
- Testosterone without an ester (test no ester, TNE) is a rapid compound that is in and out of your system in a very short amount of time, which isn’t convenient for enhancement
- Testosterone enanthate has a half life of 5-7 days, allowing users to inject much less frequently and avoid severe hormone fluctuations
- Sustanon is a blend of short and long esters of testosterone (propionate, phenyl- propionate, isocaproate, and decanoate), making for an interesting half life curve
- EQ is the extremely long undecylenate ester of boldenone, which can also be found as the shorter boldenone cypionate ester and the much shorter boldenone acetate ester
- NPP is the phenyl-propionate ester of nandrolone, and Deca is the decanoate ester of nandrolone - they are the same steroid, but with different half lives
Half life is the time it takes the body to halve the amount of a compound in its system.
- After administration, the amount of a compound in your system grades up from zero, reaches its peak serum concentration, and then begins to decline on its half life curve
- Example, the cypionate ester of testosterone has a half life of 7 days - if you injected 100mg, by next week you would have 50mg still in your system
Example, injecting 100mg testosterone cypionate once per week for demonstration purposes:
- Week 1: 100mg1
- Week 2: (100*0.5^1=50)1 + 1002 = 150mg
- Week 3: (100*0.5^2=25)1 + 502 + 1003 = 175mg
- Week 4: (100*0.5^3=12.5)1 + 252 + 503 + 1004 = 187.5mg
- Week 5: (100*0.5^4=6.25)1 + 12.52 + 253 + 504 + 1005 = 193.75mg
- Week 6: (100*0.5^5=3.125)1 + 6.252 + 12.53 + 254 + 505 + 1006 = 196.875mg
- The user will be at much greater risk of side effects than if they divided their weekly dose across every other day or everyday injections. The above numbers are ONLY for demonstration purposes.
- To track half lives, the injection week is noted in subscript beside each serum number (Ex: 254 means the injection from week 4, which has undergone two half lives: 100 → 50 → 25).
The Steroid Family Tree - All AAS are divided into three categories with general properties:
- Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) derivatives
- Testosterone derivatives
- 19-nortestosterone / Nandrolone derivatives
- Example, Primobolan being an adjusted version of Dihydrotestosterone.
DHT derivatives don’t aromatize into estrogen, & can’t be 5ar into DHT.
- Some DHT derivatives have the potential for downward pressure on estrogen signaling, such as Primobolan and Masteron. The degree of their downward pressure varies genetically
- Example, Boldenone aromatizes* into synthetic E1, Dianabol aromatizes into methyl-E2
- Exception, Halotestin - which does not aromatize due to its unique molecular structure
- Nandrolone derivatives are very androgenic, whereas their 5ar counterparts are not
- Example, if a 5ar inhibitor is combined with nandrolone, more hair loss would occur than using nandrolone alone because it is prevented from 5ar into its less androgenic form
When AAS are introduced into the human body, natural testosterone production is suppressed.
- The degree of suppression depends on dose, genetics, and duration of AAS use
- This signal informs your body to stop producing natural testosterone
- Suppression fades after stopping AAS use, and is considered gone after 5 half lives
- Effective doses of AAS are almost guaranteed to fully suppress natural testosterone production
- Example, some cases of very sensitive people administering a single dose of AAS or SARMs and never recovering their testosterone levels within 90% of their original values
