Which is better, testosterone cypionate or testosterone enanthate?

I have read all sorts of comments about how one ester is better than the other and even comments that one causes more sides such as water retention and the other causes more striations in the inner chest and delts. Is this possible?

There are many different esters that are used with anabolic/androgenic steroids, but I hate to disappoint everyone, 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 weeks 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.

What about water retention?

Testosterone enanthate can cause Estrogen related problems more readily than say propionate, simply because with enanthate testosterone levels will peak and trough much sooner (5-6 day half-life as opposed to 1 day half life). Likewise testosterone suspension is the worst in regards to gyno and water bloat because blood hormone levels peak so quickly with this drug (about 1 hour).

Instead of waiting about a week for testosterone levels to rise to their highest point, here we are looking at only 1 day with the propionate. 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. So basically speaking testosterone is testosterone.

Let’s take a look at the chemical formula of testosterone , testosterone cypionate testosterone enanthate:

An ester is simply a name for a chemical compound that is formed from reaction between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. A simple chemical diagram of this reaction is shown above in Figure A.

Figure B shows the chemical structure of free testosterone (chemical formula C19H28O2) as well as two different esters of testosterone (testosterone cypionate and testosterone enanthate).

Testosterone cypionate
Molecular Formula: C27H40O3
Formula Weight: 412.61
4-ANDROSTEN-17b-OL-3-ONE 17-CYCLOPENTYLPROPIONATE
Testosterone base + cypionate ester
Molecular weight of base: 288.429
Molecular weight of ester: 132.1184 (cypionic acid, 8 carbons)

Testosterone enanthate
4-ANDROSTEN-17b-OL-3-ONE 17-ENANTHATE
Testosterone base + Enanthate ester
Molecular Formula, C26H40O3
Formula Weight: 400.60
Molecular weight of base: 288.429
Molecular weight of ester: 130.1864 (enanthoic acid, 7 carbons)

288.429/400.60 = 72% of testosterone enanthate is testosterone base, so out of 100mg – 72mg is testosterone and 28mg is ester.

288.429/412.69 = 70% of testosterone cypionate is testosterone base, so out of 100mg – 70mg and 30mg is ester.

Which one has the best bang for the buck?

If you have two bottles of 200mg/ml, one cypionate and one enanthate. The enenthate will have 2% more test base than the cypionate. Since the half life of the enanthate ester is 5-6 days days and the half life of the cypionate ester is 6-7 days, the enanthate ester is going to cause the test base to be released in the body slightly quicker, thus peaking in the blood slightly quicker. So any side effects you might feel when using enanthate over cypionate are caused by the test base entering and peaking in the blood slightly quicker.

As previously mentioned, using test suspension at the same dosage would mean that the test suspension would enter and peak in the blood even faster since test base has a half life of about 1 hour. This means that if you are using the exact same milligrams of test from either suspension cypionate or enanthate you are going to get the most side effects from the suspension since it enters and peaks in the blood much quicker. This is why users of test undecanoate report far fewer sides since the half life is about 20 days.

Steroid esters:
Drug Active half-life
Suspension within 1 hour
Acetate 1 day
Propionate 1 day
Phenylpropionate 1-2 days
Butyrate 2-3 days
Valerate 3 days
Hexanoate 3 days
Caproate 4-5 days
Isocaproate 4-5 days
Heptanoate 5-6 days
Enanthate 5-6 days
Octanoate 6-7 days
Cypionate 6-7 days
Nonanoate 7 days
Decanoate 7-8 days
Undeclenate 8-9 days
Undecanoate Approx 20 days

Milligrams below are the estimated amount of active hormone per 100mg of hormone and ester.

Boldenone base: 100mg
Boldenone acetate: 83mg
Boldenone Propionate: 80mg
Boldenone Cypionate: 69mg
Boldenone Undecylenate: 61mg

Clostebol Base: 100mg
Clostebol Acetate: 84mg
Clostebol Enanthate: 72mg

Drostanolone Base: 100mg
Drostanolone Propionate: 80mg
Drostanolone Enanthate: 71mg

Methenolone Base: 100mg
Methenolone Acetate: 82mg
Methenolone Enanthate: 71mg

Nandrolone Base: 100mg
Nandrolone Cypionate: 69mg
Nandrolone Phenylpropionate: 63mg
Nandrolone Decanoate: 62mg
Nandrolone Undecylenate: 60mg
Nandrolone Laurate: 56mg

Stenbolone Base: 100mg
Stenbolone Acetate: 84mg

Testosterone Base: 100mg
Testosterone Acetate: 83mg
Testosterone Propionate: 80mg
Testosterone Isocaproate: 72mg
Testosterone Enanthate: 70mg
Testosterone Cypionate: 69mg
Testosterone Phenylpropionate: 66mg
Testosterone Decanoate: 62mg
Testosterone Undecanoate: 61mg

Trenbolone Base: 100mg
Trenbolone Acetate: 83mg
Trenbolone Enanthate: 68mg
Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzyl Carbonate: 65mg
Trenbolone Cyclohexylmethylcarbonate: 65mg

Adam Delaney admin@uglnewsletter.com