Testosterone Suspension
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Chemical Name |
4-androsten-3-one-17beta-ol, 17beta-hydroxy-androst-4-en-3-one |
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Molecular Weight |
288.42 g/mol |
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Formula |
C19H28O2 |
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Original Manufacturer |
N/A |
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Half Life |
2~4hours (some reports as long as 39 hours) |
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| Detection Time | 1~3days | ||
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Anabolic Rating |
100 |
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Androgenic Rating |
100 |
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Overview and history of testosterone suspension
Testosterone suspension is an injectable preparation of pure, unrefined testosterone, almost always suspended in a water base within microcrystals (hence the name testosterone suspension).
In the bodybuilding and athletic world, testosterone suspension is considered the strongest and most potent form of injectable testosterone, and is known to produce the fastest mass, strength, and physique changes of all injectable testosterone preparations.
This is for a couple of reasons.
The first reason is that it is the purest form of testosterone, unmodified and unesterified, so it is immediately active the moment it is injected into the body.
Also, because there are no esters bound to the testosterone molecule, there is more total testosterone per mg of testosterone suspension, making it a much more potent product.
The weight of the ester must be factored into the total weight of the substance, so esterified forms of testosterone (or any hormone) such as testosterone propionate, testosterone enanthate, and testosterone cypionate do not all produce 100 mg of testosterone in 100 mg of testosterone enanthate, for example.
When the ester bound to the molecule is broken down in the body, the weight of the ester is removed, so 100 mg of testosterone enanthate, for example, actually contains about 70 mg of testosterone.
However, 100 mg of testosterone suspension will yield exactly 100 mg of testosterone.
Because esterified testosterone variants have a long half-life and the ester must be removed (before pure testosterone is released), optimal peak plasma concentrations are often reached within a few weeks of use.
Testosterone suspensions, on the other hand, often reach optimal peak plasma concentrations in a matter of hours.
For example, with longer acting testosterone esters such as testosterone enanthate and cypionate, you may not experience muscle mass and strength gains until about 4 or 5 weeks (some users report as long as 6 weeks).
With testosterone suspension, you will typically see results within the first week of use, with most of the gains occurring by the end of a 4-week testosterone suspension cycle (while long acting testosterone in the same time frame will be just beginning to show results).
Testosterone suspension is the oldest anabolic steroid preparation, first isolated and synthesized by German scientists in the early 1930s.
Testosterone suspension was the first of the testosterone preparations to be created, preceding the slower acting esterified testosterone by several years.
Although testosterone propionate was developed in the mid-1930s and testosterone enanthate was introduced in the 1950s, testosterone suspension remained popular during this time despite being widely recognized as an inconvenient crude form of testosterone that was painful to inject and had a very short half-life, requiring frequent injections
In comparison, testosterone propionate required injections every other day to every four days, and testosterone enanthate once or twice a week.
Testosterone suspension requires at least daily injections, if not multiple times a day.
Testosterone suspension is the longest-lasting testosterone product on the prescription market in the United States and abroad, and is sold under several trademarks and brand names in the United States (e.g., Ulmer's Testosterone, Central's Andronac, Pitman-Moore's Aqua Suspension Testosterone, Arlongton-Funk's Injectable Aqueous Testosterone, Endo's Virosterone, National Drug Company's Testosterone Aqueous, and others).
Testosterone suspensions are probably widely used and manufactured in too many quantities and brands to count, both generic and brand names.
Of course, the clinical and medical applications of testosterone suspension are the same as all other testosterone products.
These included treating hypogonadism (lack of sex drive), male erectile dysfunction, hypogonadism and male menopause (lack of testosterone production in men), delayed puberty in adolescent males, even breast cancer in women, and a few other conditions.
By the late 1980s and 1990s, the FDA revised the list of approved treatments, narrowing it down, as it did with all other anabolic steroids.
Testosterone suspension was then determined to be a drug focused almost exclusively on the treatment of hypogonadism and male menopause, although even today it remains a drug of last resort for the treatment of female breast cancer (albeit in very rare cases, given the high incidence of the disease in women).
In fact, testosterone suspension was used fairly extensively in the U.S. prescription market until 1998.
In 1998, testosterone suspension was primarily manufactured by Steris Laboratories in the United States, which was one of the last companies to manufacture the drug for medical use.
Due to a small issue with the dispensing of Schedule 3 drugs at the time, the FDA forced Steris to cease production of all Schedule 3 drugs (including testosterone suspension) due to discrepancies in inventory reports.
It wasn't until several years later that Steris was given the opportunity to restart production of testosterone suspension, but chose not to.
Because of this, pharmaceutical grade testosterone suspension is currently only available in the US prescription drug market through private compounding pharmacies, and the drug has become a special order item that is difficult to obtain.
It is also still widely used as a veterinary drug.
Due to the large variety and choice of testosterone suspensions available worldwide, there is a wide range of doses and concentrations available, with some products containing 100mg/ml or 50mg/ml (very common).
Testosterone suspensions are available in 1 ml ampoules or 10 ml multidose vials.
Chemical properties of testosterone suspension
Testosterone suspension is an injectable testosterone product that contains free, pure, unmodified testosterone in a microcrystalline form suspended in a water base.
In this case, the absence of ester bonds in the testosterone molecule results in a significantly reduced half-life compared to other injectable forms of testosterone, with a half-life of only 2-4 hours (some studies have reported as high as 24-39 hours)[1].
Once again, it is important to understand that because testosterone suspension does not contain esterified carboxylic acids, a person using this product receives significantly more testosterone per mg of injection than other forms of testosterone.
100 mg of testosterone suspension produces 100 mg of testosterone.
In comparison, 100 mg of testosterone enanthate only produces 70 mg of testosterone (the enanthate ester is removed by enzymes in the body, leaving free testosterone).
Properties of Testosterone Suspension
Testosterone is known to promote the retention of large amounts of nitrogen in muscle tissue, which has been shown in studies to result in significant increases in fat-free mass and muscle size [2].
Testosterone is also well known to significantly increase IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) levels in muscle tissue, resulting in significant increases in muscle size and strength [3].
Research into the action of testosterone within muscle tissue suggests that this occurs primarily through its ability to activate satellite cells in muscle tissue, which are critical for their role in repairing damaged muscle fibers [4].
The same research has also shown that testosterone has the ability to inhibit lipogenesis (fat storage) and increase the size of motor neurons.
Testosterone has been found to achieve its muscle growth and strength-enhancing effects primarily through interaction with androgen receptors located on muscle cells [5].
Additionally, androgens such as testosterone stimulate an increase in erythropoietin in the kidneys, which increases the number of red blood cells, improving oxygen transportation throughout the body, thereby enhancing an athlete's endurance capacity [6].
In general, testosterone is considered to be one of the best mass gain and bulking agents.
Those looking to bulk up will experience faster results with testosterone suspension than with any other form of testosterone.
It has also been found that there is a relationship between the dosage used and the amount of muscle growth, with the higher the dosage, the greater the growth experienced [7].
Testosterone can be considered the first anabolic steroid to be produced naturally and endogenously in all humans and most animal species.
Testosterone is the most versatile anabolic steroid, so testosterone suspension can be utilized for any specific goal.
Testosterone Suspension References
[1]J Vet Pharmacol Ther. 2011 Mar 2. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2885.2011.01277.x
[2] Testosterone replacement therapy increases fat-free muscle mass and muscle size in hypogonadal men. Bhasin S, Storer TW, Berman N, Yarasheski KE, Clevenger B, Phillips J, Lee WP, Bunnell TJ, Casaburi R. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1997 Feb;82(2):407-13.
[3] Administration of testosterone to elderly men improves muscle function: Molecular and physiologic mechanisms. Ferrando AA, Sheffield-Moore M, Yeckel CW, Gilkison C, Jiang J, Achacosa A, Lieberman SA, Tipton K, Wolfe RR, Urban RJ. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Mar;282(3):E601-7.
[4] Testosterone action on skeletal muscle. Herbst KL, Bhasin S. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. May 2004;7(3):271-7.
[5] Targeting the steroid hormone receptor pathway in the treatment of hormone-dependent cancers. Ko YJ, Balk SP. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2004 Oct;5(5):459-70.
[6] Effect of androgens on erythropoietin in patients with hypogonadism. Cui YG, Tong JS, Pan QQ, Di FS, Jia Y, Feng T, Liu Y, Wang XH, Zhang GY. Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue. J Med. 2003;9(4):248-51.
[7] Testosterone increases maximal voluntary strength and leg power in a dose-dependent manner but has no effect on fatigability or specific strain. Storer TW, Magliano L, Woodhouse L, Lee ML, Dzekov C, Dzekov J, Casaburi R, Bhasin S. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Apr;88(4):1478-85.
