It is difficult to determine where Trenbolone Enanthate places itself in terms of popularity among the three main variants of Trenbolone (Trenbolone Acetate, Trenbolone Enanthate, and Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate). Some might agree that Trenbolone Enanthate is a close tie with Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate (Parabolan) in terms of second most popularity next to Trenbolone Acetate, which has reserved first place among athletes and bodybuilders for preference. Trenbolone is a very potent and powerful anabolic steroid that, in this case, is a long-estered variant. That is to say that Trenbolone Enanthate is affixed with the Enanthate ester, a long ester that extends the half-life of Trenbolone upwards of 7 – 10 days. This is quite different from Trenbolone Acetate, which expresses a half-life of approximately 3 days. Ultimately, there are both advantages and disadvantages to both, which will be addressed shortly. Trenbolone Enanthate in terms of release rate and pharmacokinetics is literally identical to Testosterone Enanthate (or any anabolic steroid affixed with the Enanthate ester). Anabolic steroids such as Trenbolone Enanthate are designed to provide a fairly quick release of the hormone into the body in the initial 2 days or so after initial administration, and blood plasma levels remain high, slowly tapering off over a two week period. This could be considered a sustained release. Because the half-life of Trenbolone Enanthate is quite close to Parabolan (Trenbolone Hex), the two are easily interchangeable with one another.
It should be made perfectly clear, however, that the esters affixed to the hormone (Acetate, Enanthate, or Hex) merely serve to alter the release rate and half-life of the drug – they do not alter the strength, potency, or pharmacodynamics of the hormone that the ester is affixed to. Trenbolone Acetate expresses a 3 day half-life, Trenbolone Enanthate expresses a 7 – 10 day half-life, and Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate (Parabolan) expresses a 14 day half-life.
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Trenbolone as the base hormone is an extremely powerful hormone, approximately 5 times the strength of Testosterone in both anabolic and androgenic strength, making Trenbolone an extremely potent anabolic steroid. Roussel-UCLAF was the firm during the late 1960s to initially synthesize and investigate Trenbolone, first with Trenbolone Acetate, and then with other long-acting Trenbolone esterified variants[1]. The interesting aspect of Trenbolone’s history is that Enanthate was not specifically researched by Roussel-UCLAF, though was metaphorically ‘on the backburner’. It was never officially manufactured as an FDA-approved (or any equivalent) pharmaceutical drug meant for human use or sale on the prescription market. The other two variants of Trenbolone (Acetate under the brand name Finajet/Finaject and Hex under the brand name Parabolan) both experienced brief periods of official sale and use on the pharmaceutical drug market, although briefly. Trenbolone Acetate’s life on the pharmaceutical market was short lived in the 1970s, while Parabolan reigned briefly during the 1990s. It was not long until they were pulled from the market and their status as human-use prescription drugs stripped. Trenbolone Enanthate, on the other hand, would surface much later on in 2004 as an underground lab (UGL) product, made by British Dragon and sold as Trenabol. British Dragon was the first to manufacture and offer this ester of Trenbolone, dosed at 200mg/ml, and eventually manufactured a full line of Trenbolone based products that were all underground products for sale on the black market. None were FDA-approved, manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, or sold in pharmacies.
Trenbolone Enanthate was never approved for either human or veterinary use, and is still to this day strictly an underground origin product that is only manufactured by underground laboratories. It is impossible to find any pharmaceutical grade Trenbolone Enanthate that is made to pharmaceutical standards and meant for human use. Its popularity is only as big as it currently is due to its popularity growth and boom on the black market and is extremely common among bodybuilders and athletes, probably because it is one of the few convenient long-acting Trenbolone esters. By the time Trenbolone Enanthate arrived on the scene, the vast majority of Trenbolone users were utilizing the Acetate ester, and still remains the most common form of Trenbolone even today. Although the original British Dragon laboratories shut down in 2006 and underwent a law enforcement bust, the legacy of Trenbolone Enanthate continues today and countless other underground labs continue to manufacture it, ensuring a steady and guaranteed supply on the black market.
What Is Trenbolone Enanthate?
As previously mentioned, Trenbolone Enanthate is a long ester variant of the hormone Trenbolone. Trenbolone, being a derivative of Nandrolone (the base hormone in Deca-Durabolin), is a 19-nor anabolic steroid. 19-nor compounds are characterized by their lack of a 19th carbon on the steroid structure, which also brings Trenbolone the classification of a progestin as well. Through it’s modifications from Nandrolone, it introduces two double-bonds between carbons 11 and 9, and it is this chemical modification that effectively makes Trenbolone totally immune to aromatization (conversion into Estrogen) by way of the aromatase enzyme as well as increasing the strength at which Trenbolone binds to the androgen receptor[2]. That is to say that Trenbolone will not produce any estrogenic side effects alone, and that it is an extremely potent and very strong anabolic steroid with an anabolic:androgenic ratio of 500:500. Compared to Testosterone, this is staggering, as Testosterone expresses an anabolic:androgenic ratio of 100:100. Hence, we can see how and why Trenbolone is five times the strength of Testosterone. Its chemical modifications also allow it a stronger resistance to metabolism in the body, allowing even more maximization of its anabolic capabilities in muscle tissue. Lastly, Trenbolone Enanthate possesses the enanthate ester, affixed at the 17-beta hydroxyl group on the steroid structure. This, as mentioned many times already, slows the release rate and also extends Trenbolone’s half-life in the body to approximately 7 – 10 days.
As a result of its chemical modifications, there is little question as to why Trenbolone Enanthate is so popular and effective among bodybuilders and athletes. Because of its unique characteristics, Trenbolone Enanthate is quite versatile in terms of its capabilities of use. It can literally be utilized for any goal: bulking, lean mass gaining, cutting (fat loss), strength gaining, and other goals perhaps more specific to different sports. Trenbolone Enanthate is commonly utilized in longer cycles due to its longer half-life and slower activity in the body. Because of the long Enanthate ester, users will typical inject Trenbolone Enanthate approximately twice per week, with each administration spaced evenly apart. For example, an injection on Sunday and an injection on Wednesday would suffice. If an individual is utilizing 400mg/week of Trenbolone Enanthate, 200mg would be injected on Sunday and the following 200mg would be injected on Wednesday.
How Does Trenbolone Enanthate Work and How Is It Best Used?
Because Trenbolone Enanthate exhibits a half-life of approximately 7 – 10 days and is presently more common than its other long-ester counterpart Parabolan, it provides many users who are mostly needle-shy or find frequent injections inconvenient with a more convenient form of Trenbolone to use. In contrast with Trenbolone Acetate, which requires every other day injections at the very least, Trenbolone Enanthate requires administration only twice per week with each injection spread evenly apart (Monday and Thursday, for example). Because Trenbolone is considered an intermediate-advanced level anabolic steroid, the majority of users of this compound are usually well aware of the ins and outs of it. Many intermediates making their first step to Trenbolone will prefer Trenbolone Enanthate due to the convenience of less frequent injections. However, the disadvantage to this is the fact that Trenbolone is an anabolic steroid that is extremely powerful and does carry with it some potential side effects unseen with any other compounds. It has therefore been labelled as a ‘harsh’ anabolic steroid, and beginners to Trenbolone who are wondering which form to use might want to opt for Trenbolone Acetate instead. The reason being that the faster half-life of Trenbolone Acetate ensures that blood levels of Trenbolone rise quickly and fall quickly as well, ensuring a fast clearance from the body should any issues arise and the user wishes to stop. With Trenbolone Enanthate, two weeks is what is required before Trenbolone is completely clear of the body, during which time undesirable side-effects might persist.
It is therefore the prerogative of the individual to use this information and decide for themselves whether the convenience of less frequent injections is indeed worth the risk of having to wait two weeks before the drug is clear from the body if any undesirable effects arise. If the user is a well-experienced user of Trenbolone that already understands their body’s reaction, this decision should already be made.
It is important to understand that with long-estered anabolic steroids like Trenbolone Enanthate, the time required for the hormone to reach peak and optimal circulating blood plasma levels is considerably longer than short-estered variants. For example, many individuals report experiencing significant strength gains and/or physique changes by the second or third week with Trenbolone Acetate, but Trenbolone Enanthate might require upwards of 4 – 6 weeks (depending on the individual as well) before the hormone noticeably “kicks in”. Because of the long Enanthate ester, the hormone slowly reaches optimal levels over a period of a few weeks as each dose builds upon the last. Of course, those who wish to speed up this process can always decide to frontload. However, be aware that there are both benefits as well as risks/downsides to such a practice, and frontloading should thoroughly be researched and contemplated before doing so. This is especially true with a compound such as Trenbolone, and is doubly especially true if the user is a first-time Trenbolone user.
In general, Trenbolone Enanthate is what would be considered the advanced Trenbolone user’s Trenbolone. However, this is not to say that plenty of well-experienced Trenbolone veterans won’t utilize Trenbolone Acetate – many do, and many tend to stick with Trenbolone Acetate exclusively forever without touching Tren Enanthate. The take-home point here is that Trenbolone Enanthate use is much more common among experienced users rather than bare beginners to Trenbolone, who will most often elect to use Trenbolone Acetate due to the short half-life and therefore relatively quick clearance from the body. This is usually a security precaution in the event that the first-time user encounters a bad experience on Trenbolone and wishes to stop more abruptly than stopping Trenbolone Enanthate would.
Tren is best utilized with other similar compounds, but it is absolutely essential that some form of Testosterone be run with it, even if only for the sake of health. It might be a wise idea to limit the amount and/or dosage of aromatizable androgens used with it, as some times the Estrogen-related side effects can be exacerbated when high levels of a progestin is utilized in a high-Estrogen environment. Normally it is Testosterone Enanthate that is commonly combined in cycles with Trenbolone Enanthate, for very obvious reasons.
Trenbolone Enanthate Side Effects
Trenbolone is an anabolic steroid, and as such, it carries with it all of the typical side effects that are common among all anabolic steroids and more. “And more” refers to the additional unqiue side effects common to Trenbolone that are often discussed within the bodybuilding community (and frequently carried out of proportion) attached to very ridiculous and mostly-exaggerated horror stories.
Because Trenbolone does not aromatize into Estrogen at any dosage, there is zero risk of Estrogen-related side effects with Trenbolone alone. Estrogen Trenbolone Enanthate side effects are literally nonexistent. However, it is advised to closely monitor the dosage of aromatizable compounds run with it (i.e. Testosterone, Dianabol, etc.) as an Estrogen-rich environment in the body often leads to additional Trenbolone Enanthate side effects and complications due to complex hormonal pathways in the body that is related and linked between Estrogen, progestins, Prolactin, and the aromatase enzyme. Often times if an individual experiences Estrogen-related side effects during Trenbolone use, it is not the result of Trenbolone itself, but of the other compounds the individual is using alongside it.
Androgenic side effects are indeed a concern and definitely included as a part of the list of Trenbolone Enanthate side effects, as Trenbolone exhibits an adrogenic strength rating of 500. This means it is 5 times the androgenic strength of Testosterone. However, the up-side to this factor is that Trenbolone does not convert into any stronger androgenic metabolites in the body (unlike Testosterone, which is reduced into Dihydrotestosterone in the body). Therefore, any androgenic capabilities resultant from Trenbolone are what can be expected on average throughout its use. Individuals must take care to monitor and watch for androgenic side effects such as: increased aggression, irritability, acne (as a result of increased oil secretion on the skin), potential for male pattern baldness (if one possesses the genetics for it), and benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlargement of the prostate). Note that 5-alpha reductase inhibitors such as Proscar, Finasteride, Dutasteride, and Propecia do nothing to reduce or eliminate the androgenic Trenbolone Enanthate side effects.
There should be no concern for liver issues (hepatotoxicity) with Trenbolone Enanthate, as it is an injectable anabolic steroid that avoids the first pass through the liver. However, negative alteration of cholesterol and other cardiovascular concerns and issues can be a problem, as is the case with most, if not all anabolic steroids. Trenbolone Enanthate side effects also bring with it the typical HPTA suppression/shutdown that is common of all anabolic steroids. Therefore, users should either limit themselves to shorter cycles or ensure to engage in a proper PCT (Post Cycle Therapy) protocol following use, lest the secondary hypogonadism develops as a result of neglect in this area.
Trenbolone Enanthate side effects that are unique to Trenbolone itself include profuse perspiration (sweating), especially at night in bed for as of yet unknown reasons. Coughing fits that are normally more heavily associated with Trenbolone Acetate are very rarely reported or seen with Trenbolone Enanthate, though it still remains a possibility (dubbed the ‘tren cough’). The cough seems to occur more with Trenbolone Acetate rather than with the Enanthate variant, possibly because the incidence and severity of the cough have much to do with the rate of release of Trenbolone into the body. The true roots and cause of the ‘tren cough’ are currently not fully understood, but some valid and accurate hypotheses include the fact that Trenbolone itself causes varying degrees of anaphylactic reactions in the bronchial pathways, as well as some of the compound seeping into punctured capillaries/veins during the injection, which irritate the lungs. In the case of oil entering the bloodstream through capillaries/veins, this can occur with any oil-based anabolic steroid as well, which also results in coughing fits during or shortly after injection.
Finally, a small note should be made about one of the most commonly discussed Trenbolone Enanthate side effects: its seeming capability to induce larger amounts of aggression, anger, and impatientness in some users. Although there is a massive lack of clinical evidence to support the anecdotal claims that Tren exhibits this in some or most of its users, it is therefore the most important point of this whole profile to send the following message out to anyone willing to use Trenbolone in any form: those who have problems with their temper or patience must at all costs take responsible action and avoid the use of Trenbolone. If the use of Trenbolone Enanthate is too alluring, ensure to learn to exhibit self-control when one’s anger, temper, or lack of patience arises in any situations. It is irresponsible to utilize an anabolic steroid as potent as Trenbolone while knowing full well all of its potential effects, and allow oneself to get into serious trouble as a result of uncontrolled anger, and veer off blaming the anabolic steroid they had used as opposed to themselves for exercising poor self-responsibility. Trenbolone is a drug, and a very powerful androgenic anabolic hormone to be respected. Respect the hormone and it will respect you.
