Side Effects
Like all testosterone steroids, Sustanon 325 has Strong androgenic effects and is also an aromatizing steroid which means it causes estrogenic side effects as well.
This means that the most dreaded side effects that steroid users face are at high risk of occurring when you use Sustanon including water retention and gynecomastia – these affect not only the appearance of your results but also potentially your health.
Learning how to control all these side effects is an important aspect of using Sustanon. Here are the main side effects to look out for when using Sustanon 325:
Estrogenic Side Effects
Sustanon (testosterone) is an aromatizing steroid which results in testosterone being converted into the female hormone estrogen.
Men require small amounts of estrogen for normal functioning, but the aromatizing process often results in a great imbalance between estrogen and testosterone, causing estrogen to rise beyond normal levels and this brings about familiar side effects. These are:
- Gynecomastia – the growth of excess tissue on the breast area in males. If this issue is allowed to go on for too long, it can reach a stage where surgery is your only option to fix it.
- Water retention and bloating – retaining too much fluid will give you a bloated look and mask some of the muscle gains you’re making or make it difficult or impossible to achieve a toned and refined look in a cutting cycle.
- High blood pressure – water retention can cause blood pressure to rise simply because of the additional fluid being circulated those results in blood pressure increasing.
The higher your Sustanon dosage is, the more likely and more severe the estrogen related side effects will be as levels of that hormone rise further.
Androgenic Side Effects
The testosterone hormone has an even rating of anabolic to androgenic effect at 100 and 100 – or an anabolic:androgenic ratio of 1 – so we can expect the androgenic side effects to be as powerful as the anabolic benefits when using Sustanon as it is simply a testosterone combination steroid.
Besides the androgenic activity of testosterone itself, when that hormone is converted in DHT then a further increase in androgenic effects happen with DHT being a very powerful androgen compared with testosterone.
Not everyone will suffer with all or even any of these side effects as they can be heavily determined by your genetics, but it’s wise to be aware of the possibilities of androgen related side effects with Sustanon, including:
- Oily skin and acne – increased sebum production can result in acne ranging from mild to severe, especially if you were an acne sufferer in your teens.
- Baldness –hair loss ion males or a noticeable receding hairline can occur if you are genetically predisposed to baldness. This can be difficult or impossible to reverse and means you can experience hair loss sometimes several decades earlier than you were already going to thanks to your genetics.
- Masculine effects in females – being a strong androgen, Sustanon is not recommended for females because of the virilization side effects which are highly likely. These include hair growth, voice deepening, clitoral enlargement, irregularities with menstruation and an overall major imbalance of having far too much testosterone in the female body which normally only has a very small amount.
So, what can you do about these side effects? The only way to manage them or try and prevent them completely in the case of estrogenic effects, is to make use of prescription drugs that were mostly developed to treat breast cancer in women either by blocking estrogen receptors or lowering overall estrogen.
Aromatase inhibitors (AI) are commonly used as are SERMs (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators). While SERMs are useful for tackling side effects like gyno specifically because of the way they target estrogen receptors in the breast tissue, AIs reduce overall estrogen levels and can therefore address all estrogenic related activity and as such have become the preferred option for combating these side effects.
Cholesterol
Other side effects at the more serious end relate to Sustanon’s effects on cholesterol health. It can bring about a reduction in levels of good cholesterol (HDL), and this can get worse when you are using an aromatase inhibitor drug which is almost always the case. So, people with existing cholesterol issues need to strictly monitor levels and maintain a quality diet with omega-3 and other cholesterol friendly foods and implementing good amounts of cardio into your workouts.
Testosterone Suppression
Natural testosterone production is another unavoidable effect of using Sustanon because the body is receiving high amounts of testosterone from the steroid. This has no effect during your cycle but causes a drop in testosterone once Sustanon wears off at the end of the cycle. Here is where post cycle therapy is critical to trigger natural testosterone production again, without which you would be waiting many months for normal hormonal function to recover – resulting in severe low testosterone effects including loss of the gains you worked so hard for during your cycle.
SUSTANON POST CYCLE THERAPHY:
Because of the way Sustanon 325 causes your natural testosterone production to become suppressed or stopped altogether, post cycle theraphy is needed to get your normal hormone function back on track. Because Sustanon gives the body a constant supply of testosterone, it is triggered into thinking that it no longer needs to product its own.
When you stop using Sustanon and the effects wear off, you are then in a low testosterone state unless you take action to stimulate normal production again. Without this, you will suffer severe low testosterone effects like loss of muscle, fat gain, low mood or depression, loss of libido, lack of energy and many other issues.
The timing of your PCT cycle after using Sustanon will once again also be influenced by any other steroid compounds you’re using. Sustanon’s longer half-life overall means your PCT for this specific steroid should be started about three weeks after your last injection, in order to prevent the crash in testosterone levels that will otherwise occur.
SERMs like Clomid combined with HCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin) will work to restore natural testosterone function.
While aromatase inhibitors might be tempting to use during PCT to suppress overall estrogen, their estrogen suppression effect can often be too powerful, having the reverse effect that you need as males still require small amounts of estrogen rather than zero – for this reason, a SERM combined with hCG is the most recommended post cycle therapy choice.