For years, or rather, since forever, when we think of oral steroids (or "orals" as they are called in English), we think of tablets and, more rarely, capsules. There has often been debate about when to take these oral steroids, whether to take the tablets on an empty stomach or a full stomach, and how much water to use to swallow them.
Although they are not yet widely available in Europe, they will be very soon. In other countries, particularly in America, oral tablets are practically disappearing, to be replaced by oral steroids in suspension, more commonly known as liquid orals. There is one substantial difference: while tablets have the active ingredient mixed with excipients, fillers, and thickeners and pressed together in the form of a tablet, oral suspensions are nothing more than the active ingredient dissolved or semi-dissolved in sterile water and come in a specific bottle with a dropper.
The history of liquid oral steroids or suspensions
Active ingredients in the form of oral suspensions have always been used in laboratories and for pharmaceutical research purposes. Believe it or not, the first medicines or products to be launched on the market in this form were drugs for erectile dysfunction: when Pfizer patented Viagra, all other pharmaceutical companies wanted to join this highly profitable bandwagon, but the patent for the tablets was solely and exclusively held by Pfizer, so other companies decided to market their sildenafil in other forms, such as gels, films to be dissolved under the tongue and, indeed, liquid Viagra.
In the world of steroids or PEDs (Performance Enhancement Drugs), the first category to be widely marketed in oral suspension form was SARMs which, as veterans reading this will certainly know, were initially all sold in small bottles with droppers. After SARMS, SERMS also began to be sold in oral suspension form, as did anti-estrogens. For some years now in America, oral steroids (even the most classic ones) can be found in oral suspension form and are now increasingly popular, to the point of having surpassed the old tablets: here on this site,Liquid Anavar is the best-selling oral steroid, followed closely by Liquid Winstrol, and yet new oral steroids such as Liquid Dianabol andLiquid Anadrol are gaining ground. We also find other secretagogue-type substances such as MK677.
The advantages of oral suspensions over tablets.
Let's start from the assumption that the difference in terms of disadvantages and advantages is really minimal, but there are definitely advantages to liquid oral steroids over their tablet counterparts.
- PUREZZA: it is not that the active ingredient in tablets is not pure (much depends on who manufactures them), but on average a tablet contains less than 50% active ingredient by volume/weight, with the remainder being thickeners, fillers, and excipients. The purity of the tablets is therefore more compromised than in an oral suspension, where we have the PURE product mixed with sterile water and only 0.3% alcohol for preservation purposes.
- ABSORPTION: suspension products are already liquid and therefore do not need to be dissolved in the stomach: this facilitates absorption and reduces the risk of stomach problems that tablets and capsules can cause: as a result, they do not cause discomfort even when taken on an empty stomach.
- CONVENIENCE: a 30ml bottle often contains almost as much active ingredient as two large boxes of the product: it is more concentrated and takes up less space, which is especially useful when traveling. Furthermore, with tablets you are limited to the size and dose of the tablet, whereas with a dropper you can use various doses. Sometimes, you can simply add the liquid suspension to a shake or other beverage and you won't even notice you're taking it.
- PRICE: Compressing tablets requires machinery and a fair amount of automation, and excipients and fillers also have their own price. Producing a box of tablets is much more expensive than suspending pure powder in water: as a result, all oral suspensions, and in particular oral steroids (which are notoriously more expensive than normal medicines), are cheaper in suspension form.
