In 1954, a scientist named Reifstein and his team conducted a study
comparing Testosterone Enanthate with Testosterone Propionate. The results of these studies were that Test Enanthate resulted in total nitrogen retention of 1.76g/day vs Propionate only 1.02g/day. They also found that the duration of anabolic activity was 33 days with test e and 12 days with prop. These were with the same doses 200mgs of each. Overall, the longer ester retains more nitrogen (muscle gain) per day then short esters, and remains active in the body for much longer. If something causes higher levels of nitrogen retention, and hangs around in your body longer, it's going to be more anabolic.
A study on 3 different testosterone esters, short, medium and long esters: their study showed that the short esters caused the greatest peak plasma levels of testosterone, next highest was the medium and lowest peak was the longest esters. However, they found that the long esters caused the greatest suppression on the gonadal axis and metabolic functions. They even upped the short ester dose by 2-3 times and were still not able to replicate the suppression and metabolic effects of the long esters. This greater suppression is also due to the fact that longer esters convert more readily to estrogen.
I’m sure you know that using testosterone increases Growth hormone (GH) and Insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels to a degree. But did you know that the increase in these hormones are
due to estrogen aromatization, [
2]? Going back, we know that long esters cause greater increases in estrogen, and estrogen increases GH and igf-1. So using long esters will result in greater muscle gain due to the factors I presented earlier, and also the increase in GH and IGF-1 levels that are much higher when using long esters. And as we all know HGH and IGF-1 are two very anabolic hormones. So higher levels of these hormones means more gains in size and strength.
Nandrolone studies have the same findings as the testosterone esters. The short ester Nandrolone Phenylpropionate (NPP) had greater peak plasma levels then its long estered counterpart. And suppression was greater with the long estered nandrolone deconate (deca-durabolin), and the anabolic effect was greater with the long ester (deca). Most people who have ran both Deca and NPP can say NPP causes less water retention. And the people I've talked to still say Deca is superior for muscle gain despite the same parent hormone, just different ester lengths. So its seems this the ester length and its effects on the drugs behavior remains true among many different hormones
Summary
- Longer esters cause higher levels of estrogen
- Longer esters cause more water retention
- Longer esters cause more suppression of the HPTA
- Longer esters cause higher levels of nitrogen retention (muscle gain) in other words are more anabolic
- Shorter esters cause higher peak plasma levels