Testosterone (enanthate)
The only anabolic steroid with blinded, dose-ranging randomized trials in healthy men. That makes it the reference compound — everything claimed about any other injectable is extrapolated from here.
The short version
- 600 mg/week for 10 weeks builds muscle even without training — and roughly doubles the effect of training alone. DATA
- The dose-response was measured in a 5-step RCT: 50 → 600 mg/week moved fat-free mass from +0.8 to +8.1 kg over 20 weeks. DATA
- A clinical 125 mg/week in older hypogonadal men still bought +4 kg lean mass and 8–14% strength over a year. DATA
- No randomized trial of supraphysiologic testosterone in adolescents exists — the growth-plate question runs through estradiol, not testosterone. DATA (an absence, verified by search)
Does it work — the two trials everything else leans on
The famous 1996 NEJM 2×2 (n=43 healthy men, 600 mg testosterone enanthate/week × 10 weeks, standardized lifting or none):
| Arm (no training) | Triceps area | Quadriceps area | Bench | Squat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Placebo | −81 ± 109 mm² | −131 ± 111 mm² | −1 ± 1 kg | +3 ± 1 kg |
| Testosterone | +424 ± 104 mm² | +607 ± 123 mm² | +9 ± 4 kg | +16 ± 4 kg |
The dose ladder — only steroid that has one
| Trial | Population | Dose | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bhasin 2012, RCT n=139 | healthy men, 20 wk | placebo → 600 mg/wk | FFM +0.8 → +8.1 kg (CI 6.7–9.5) |
| Borst 2014, RCT n=60 | hypogonadal ≥60 y, 52 wk | 125 mg/wk | FFM +4.04 kg, strength +8–14% |
| Bhasin 1996, RCT n=43 | healthy men, 10 wk | 600 mg/wk | FFM +6.1 kg (with training) |
Growth plates: the estrogen detour
Estradiol, not testosterone, fuses plates — proven by natural experiments DATA
A 31-year-old man with a CYP19A1 (aromatase) deletion had open growth plates and undetectable estrogens; transdermal estradiol fused his plates within 6 months (Imre 2025, n=1 but decisive). In 88 patients lacking sex steroids, bone maturation was precluded entirely and final heights ran high (Fontenele 2025). Testosterone closes plates only after aromatization — which is why plate strategy is estrogen strategy.
In delayed-puberty boys, testosterone therapy beat oxandrolone for adult height DATA
Meta-analysis n=803 boys with constitutional delay of growth and puberty: androgen therapy with testosterone achieved +2.64 cm more adult height than oxandrolone — the one setting where androgens and adult height were measured together, in a diagnosis of insufficient endogenous testosterone.
None of that transfers to adolescents with normal testosterone MODEL
Assumption: pubertal endogenous testosterone already sits on the plateau of the dose-response for growth. The CDGP boys were deficient; adding supraphysiologic testosterone to a normal pubertal male has no trial behind it. Prediction: the height effect of added androgen in a normal adolescent is unmeasured and plausibly dominated by its aromatized estradiol. Reject the assumption, reject the conclusion.
Lipids
No RCT quantifies testosterone-enanthate dose → HDL DATA
Explicit negative (searched 2026-08-28): no randomized dose-lipid trial for testosterone enanthate exists in EuropePMC. Closest: a 2024 meta-analysis of 12 observational studies in gender-affirming testosterone therapy — LDL, triglycerides and total cholesterol up, HDL down, no mg-doses in the abstract. The exact mg→HDL curve that forum schedules assume has never been drawn.
What does not exist
No adolescent trial · no dose-lipid RCT · no healthy-trained long-term RCT DATA
Verified by search: no randomized trial of supraphysiologic testosterone in healthy under-18s, none with a lipid dose-response endpoint, and none running a full cycle-length (12–16 wk) blinded trial in healthy trained men at gym doses beyond the Bhasin 600 mg ceiling. Every confident number outside those brackets is folklore wearing a lab coat.