Written by William Llewellyn
02 May 2018

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Steroid Questions On Injecting & Mail Order Anabolics

 

 

Steroid Concentration— Does it Matter?

My friend told me that it’s better inject 3 ml of 70mg/ml [milligrams per milliliter] trenbolone enanthate than it is to inject 1 ml of 210mg/ml trenbolone enanthate. The reason is that the body absorbs it better. Is this true?

In a technical sense, it is true that concentration can influence bioavailability, or the portion of drug that enters circulation. There was a study about 15 years ago that examined the pharmacokinetics of several different types of steroid injections. Pharmacokinetics concerns the study of drug absorption and distribution within the body. One focus of the investigation was to look at the different absorption patterns of the same 100 milligrams of nandrolone decanoate, when given in 1 ml or 4 ml injection volumes. Researchers also looked at the differences between shoulder and gluteus injections sites. They found that the greatest steroid bioavailability was noticed with the 1 ml (more concentrated) gluteus injection. This would seem to support the idea that you would receive more benefit from the 210 mg/ml trenbolone product, instead of the 70 mg/mL version your friend recommended.

 

With all things else equal, however, I don’t believe you would really notice the difference between the two solutions. Injection provides extremely high bioavailability with anabolic-androgenic steroids. Very little is ultimately lost to metabolism along the way. While vehicle may slightly influence total steroid delivery, the effect will not be great. You will get almost the entire steroid dose with either type of trenbolone. Vehicle volume will actually have a greater influence over the rate of absorption and peak blood concentration. More concentrated solutions are absorbed faster, and reach higher peak levels within the body. They also last for slightly shorter periods, and tend to vary more. There may be benefits and drawbacks to higher peaks versus more consistent blood concentrations, but again, I don’t think they will be very noticeable over the course of a cycle if the total dose is the same. If I were you, I would be much more concerned with the sterility, as most trenbolone sold for injection comes from underground labs. Be careful, of course.

 roidtest650

Best Needle for Injecting?

What is the best type of needle for injecting oil-based steroids like Deca and testosterone enanthate?

There is really no “best” when it comes to injection equipment. It is all about preference, either that of the doctor or the patient. I would say that the most common type of setup used for oil-based steroid injections is probably a 3 ml syringe with a 1.5” long, 22-gram needle. This is the closest to a “standard” as you will find amongst physicians. The 3 ml syringe volume provides plenty of flexibility for both low- and high-dosed injections, and the 1.5”/22-gram needle is a fair balance of comfort and injection speed (smaller diameter needles are less painful, but also harder and slower to empty). Also, 1.5” gives enough length for most overweight patients. A 1” needle is actually plenty for most athletic people, as you really just need to make sure the oil is deposited into the body of the muscle. BD and Terumo are the most popular manufacturers of needles/syringes sold in the United States. Both products are of very good quality.

 

If you want my take on what the “steroid perfectionist” injection setup would look like, I think it would be something like this. You’d start with a pre-packaged syringe/needle combo of 3 ml with 1.5”/21 grams. You don’t want to start with separate needles and syringes, as they’d require an extra step of handling (and potentially contamination). The 1.5” needle is long enough to reach the bottom of most ampules, while the 21-gram bore gives you a fast fill. You could go wider, but you'd also start chewing up the rubber stopper of any vial pretty quickly. Don’t worry about the size. This is your “draw” needle only. Once the syringe is filled with the proper dosage, the needle is removed and replaced with a fresh one of 1”/25 grams. This needle has been stored in the freezer before use, so it will numb (slightly) the tissues upon contact. This is the setup as it is ready for injection. While there are surely many different personal preferences, this is about as comfortable as you are going to get for a deep intramuscular injection in the gluteus or thigh.

 

Mail-Order Steroids— Safest Country?

What is the safest country to order steroids from? I can’t get much locally where I live. When I do find gear, the selection in pitiful!

You failed to qualify “safest” in your message. If you reside in the United States or another country where steroid possession without a valid prescription is criminalized, safest might mean “most likely to reach me without law enforcement interdiction.” This is always a crapshoot. As I am sure you know, all international mail is subject to examination by customs agents. If your steroid order is discovered, it could result in a simple seizure letter (the government asking for documentation proving that you can legally receive the goods). Sometimes, however, the end result is much worse. MD’s own legal eagle Rick Collins would be a better person to discuss this with. I suspect he has no shortage of stories where unlucky Americans received a visit from the local SWAT team along with their steroid package.

 

You might instead be primarily concerned with counterfeits, and would like to know what countries still have the largest portion of legitimate steroids available for sale. In Western Europe, pharmaceutical anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are still most commonly diverted to the black market in Greece, Spain and Portugal. I would only order these products locally, however, not from other countries. For example, never order Spanish testosterone from Bulgaria. Spanish, Greek and Portuguese steroids are in high demand, and fetch a premium price by consumers. This means that they are heavily counterfeited. The further away from these countries you go, the more likely you are to find fakes. Other common source countries that have a moderate supply of legitimate AAS and pharmacies that still sell them (sometimes) over the counter include Thailand, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. Of course, there are people who deal in counterfeits in every country. As they say, “Let the buyer beware.”

 

About the Author:

William Llewellyn is the author of the anabolic steroid reference guide, ANABOLICS 10th Edition. He is also a longtime team member at Muscular Development, having been a regular monthly columnist since 2002. William adapted this steroid profile from his work at anabolic.org. He is also credited with helping to develop ROIDTEST™, an at-home steroid testing kit used to identify real and fake steroid products.

 

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