The Guide to Making Your Own Injectable Anabolic Steroids

Q: “How do I prepare my own injectables from steroid powder that I’m confident is good?”

A tremendous amount of money can be saved by preparing one’s own injectables, and the process actually can be quite simple. Potential problems include availability and uncertainty as to the legitimacy of the product. On the other hand, these can be just as much or more of an issue with prepared vials or ampules. I can’t really much address the issue of whether a given powder is good or not.

If it is, then all that needs to be done is to dissolve the powder into a suitable carrier oil and usually a solubility enhancer as well, filter it, and dispense it into a sterile vial. Optionally, a bacteriostatic agent can be included.

So, how to do this?

First, let’s do the calculations needed. You’ll decide on what concentration you want to achieve. I don’t recommend aiming for higher concentrations than used pharmaceutically. So for example, with testosterone enanthate aim for 200 mg/mL, for testosterone cypionate 250 mg/mL, for testosterone propionate 100 mg/mL, for drostanolone propionate (Masteron) 100 mg/mL, for methenolone enanthate (Primobolan) 100 mg/mL, etc.

Other non-pharmaceutical examples would include drostanolone enthanthate at 200 mg/mL, trenbolone acetate at 75 mg/mL, and trenbolone enanthate at 200 mg/mL.

It’s not that higher concentrations cannot be used, but doing so often requires using relatively large amounts of benzyl alcohol, which is irritating to muscle. Higher concentrations also may make the injection more viscous, or may result in a painful injection. The product is in no practical sense more “potent” by making it a concentration such as 300 mg/mL or above.

So let’s say you’ve decided on x mg/mL and you’re going to use y grams of steroid powder. Doing calculations with letters can seem bothersome or a put-off, but doing so lets us work with any case. For example, let’s say you’ve decided on 200 mg/mL and you have 10 grams of powder. The volume in mL of injectable you prepare is then 1000 times y divided by x, which in this case is 1000 times 10 divided by 200, which works out to 50 mL.

This volume will include everything: the powder, the solubility enhancer which typically will be benzyl benzoate, the oil, and optionally the bacteriostatic agent, which would be benzyl alcohol if used.

The amount of volume taken up by the dissolved powder varies, but it’s close enough to assume that it will take up a volume in mL of about 0.9 times y, the gram weight of powder. So in this example, it would take up about 9 mL (0.9 times 10.)

The easiest thing to do regarding the amount of solubility enhancer is to simply make it 20% of the final total volume. As an example, in the above case of 50 mL total volume, we’d use 10 mL of benzyl benzoate as the solubility enhancer. Now in many instances, a solubility enhancer is not necessary. Here, I’m keeping to a simple general formula. Where the steroid can still be fully dissolved without benzyl benzoate, the omission provides a slightly less viscous product. It’s up to you in those cases.

If not using any benzyl alcohol – and I prefer to use none – then after the 19 mL total of powder and solubility enhancer in our example, we have 31 mL left to make up our total volume of 50 mL. This is the oil volume. Ethyl oleate can be an excellent choice, as it provides a thinner (less viscous) solution than other oils and can have a little more solubizing ability as well. However, other vegetable oils such as soybean or sesame oil may be used. If acquiring oil at the supermarket, Wesson soybean oil is a proven choice.

If you prefer using benzyl alcohol to have a bacteriostatic agent, I recommend using it at only 2% of the final total volume, and no more than 5%. In this example, if we used benzyl alcohol, we’d use 1 mL (2% of 50 mL) and we’d then need only 30 mL of carrier oil.

Let’s also have the materials we need. We’ll need a sufficiently large vial or vials to put our product into, we’ll need a large syringe such as 30 mL or 50 mL though if you’re patient smaller syringes can be used, we’ll need a large gauge needle such as 23 gauge, and we’ll need at least one submicron syringe filter to attach to the syringe (0.45 micron or smaller.) We’ll also need another syringe and needle to measure out desired volume of solubility enhancer. Preferably we’d also have an insulin needle with the plunger removed, but if this is not available a larger gauge needle can substitute for it.

Now that we have all this taken care of we can proceed.

In a first case, let’s say you don’t have an accurate balance to weigh the powder, but you ordered a particular amount, for example 10 grams. If necessary, it’s usually not a problem to assume that your bag of powder contains about the amount you ordered, or close enough. Is it actually reasonable to trust that the amount received is indeed about what was ordered? Well, if the supplier can’t be trusted to send the amount you ordered, then should you trust he sent you a correct and pure powder either? In for a penny, in for a pound. If you don’t have good stuff, then the least of your problems would be the exact weight. My biggest concern with skipping the weighing step is that you may miss detecting that you have a dishonest or careless supplier, if that’s the case.

If you have a balance, then it’s desirable to have weighing paper as well. This can easily be obtained online. It’s not actually necessary to use weighing paper – anything can be used that is probably relatively free of bacteria and dust and is easy to pour powder from – but weighing paper is convenient and inexpensive. If you don’t have it, freshly unrolled aluminum foil can be used, weighing the powder onto the side which had been inside the roll. However, aluminum foil can be annoying to pour powder from.

To weigh powder, choose an area where the air is as clear and still as possible. Have ready the large syringe, a thoroughly cleaned implement such as a laboratory spatula or a table knife, and an alcohol wipe available to give it a last moment, final cleaning as well. Slowly dispense the powder onto the weighing paper on the balance, either by carefully pouring or using your implement to make transfers. Usually it’s best to use the implement to add the final amounts. If you overshoot, use the implement to take excess off of the weighing paper. Avoid breathing onto the powder while weighing. You don’t have to make this a speed contest – in fact, avoid rushing – but it’s also better to not draw this out into taking many minutes.

When having the correct amount of powder on the weighing paper, or if assuming your bag already has the correct amount of powder in it, now add it to the large syringe by pouring into the back end. The syringe will already have the syringe filter attached to it and a large gauge needle attached to the syringe filter. That needle will have its original cap in place.

Now, after the addition of powder, fill another syringe with the calculated amount of benzyl benzoate. You may find it easier to pour into the back of the syringe than to draw through the needle, but either method will work. Add the benzyl benzoate into the back of the large syringe, and return the plunger to the back of the large syringe. With motion, mix the powder and benzyl benzoate together until everything is dissolved. This may take several minutes.

Some or all of the needed carrier oil is now added to the back of the syringe, bringing the volume up to a visible mark. For example, if using a 30 mL syringe and making 50 mL of preparation, simply add oil to the 30 mL mark and then put the plunger back in place. Then mix the oil with what’s already in the syringe, and place the needle of the syringe into the receiving vial. Insert the insulin needle or the additional large gauge needle into the receiving vial (this is to allow air to escape.) Slowly push the preparation through the filter. This may take many minutes of work: use substantial but not excessive thumb pressure, to avoid breaking the filter.

After pushing through the entire solution, if less than the full amount of oil has been used, now add the remainder to the back of the syringe, and push it through as well.

Your preparation is complete.

Heat sterilization is not necessary when this procedure has been followed, but if you want to do it for peace of mind anyway, use a bath of hot water no hotter than 70º C (158º F). All that is needed is for the preparation to come close to this temperature, so for example even 10 minutes time is entirely sufficient to kill any bacteria that might have been present, if there were any. Do not bake.

About the author

Bill Roberts

Medicinal chemist

Bill Roberts is an internationally-recognized expert on anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). He received a bachelor degree in Microbiology and Cell Science and completed the educational and research requirements for a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at a major American university.

Bill entered the nutritional supplement industry prior to completing his doctoral thesis but his education was invaluable so far as being able to design/improve nutritional supplement compounds, since it was in the field of designing drug molecules and secondarily some work in transdermal delivery.

His education was not specifically "geared" toward anabolic steroids other than expertise with pharmacological principles having broad applications. This has allowed Bill to provide unique insight into the field of anabolic pharmacology with knowledge of points which he would not have known otherwise.