How To Test If Your Deca Is Real | Nandrolone Registers As Testosterone On Blood Tests

Nandrolone Registers As Testosterone On Blood Tests

Something that isn't common knowledge is that Nandrolone is recognized as Testosterone in standard assays used in the vast majority of blood tests.

Typically, this goes completely unnoticed because steroid users only check their Testosterone and Estrogen levels in their blood work, and 99% of those who actually use Nandrolone, use it concurrently with Testosterone as a base.

The net result is a blood test with an artificially elevated Testosterone level above what would have been recorded without the Nandrolone present, because the assay used cannot differentiate between the two hormones.

Deca Only For Hormone Replacement Therapy

Recently I decided I wanted to explore Deca/NPP (Nandrolone) monotherapy as a potential hormone replacement therapy alternative.

I feel that Nandrolone is one of the most efficacious steroids that exists, and its relative lack of androgenicity in contrast to Testosterone makes it an attractive alternative for those prone to hair loss.

It's well documented that it could potentially even be more efficacious than Testosterone in certain scenarios [R].

Just a quick disclaimer, this is a hair loss prevention experiment and I by no means believe that Nandrolone is superior to Testosterone in all aspects.

Simply put, when it comes to hair loss prevention, Nandrolone significantly outperforms Testosterone, which is literally the only reason I would even consider this short-term experiment.

Most of you guys know I'm on TRT.

I decided to swap out TRT for an equivalent weekly dosage of Nandrolone to evaluate if it can replace the physiological functions fulfilled by Testosterone with a lower incidence of hair follicle miniaturization.

How To Test If Your Deca Is Real (Or NPP)

I started with NPP (Nandrolone Phenylpropionate) and swapped out Testosterone entirely.

The first thing I wanted to do was to make sure my NPP was legitimate.

NPP and Deca aren't commonly faked.

However, the likelihood is higher with NPP that you won't be getting what you paid for, and I wanted to make sure I didn't have something like Testosterone Propionate.

Initially, I actually used one of those color coded test kits.

The results were not easy to interpret.

While the color seemed to reflect what was indicated in the test kit, there are so many different color codes that are nearly identical to one another that I didn't feel it was an accurate way to evaluate with 100% certainty if what I had was legitimate.

Logically, if you want to get accurate results, you should get a blood test to see what's really going on, which is what I did.

Nandrolone Is Naturally Produced In Humans

Nandrolone is a bioidentical hormone that is naturally produced in the body, albeit in trace amounts.

It is hard to believe but yes, your body does in fact naturally produce some Nandrolone.

There are even precautions in certain drug tests in professional sports that have to account for the small amount of Nandrolone that's going to be found naturally in the body when they're trying to test for exogenous Nandrolone usage [R].

This is what skews standard blood test results.

Always Get LC/MS-MS Tests When You Check Your Hormone Levels

The only way to test if your deca is real via blood work is with a Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS-MS) Total Testosterone test.

If you don't get that specific assay, your test results are going to be wildly inaccurate.

I've seen this several times now with guys who were on Nandrolone only.

Their total Testosterone and free Testosterone levels appear to be elevated in the test results without even being on Testosterone at all.

And for the majority of those who use Testosterone with their Deca, their blood test results show skyrocketed artificially inflated Testosterone levels.

Suboptimal blood tests literally pick up 19-nortestosterone as normal Testosterone.

They can't differentiate between the two.

LC/MS-MS is, to quote, “a powerful analytic technique that combines the separating power of liquid chromatography with the highly sensitive and selective mass analysis capability of triple quadruple mass spectrometry.”

If you're not getting this type of analysis for your hormone blood tests, it's very likely that your results are inaccurate.

Obviously you should be opting for this version every time you get your Testosterone levels checked, even if you aren't using Deca or NPP.

I got the LC/MS-MS analysis for my blood test and the results showed that my Testosterone was in the gutter, which is exactly what I was expecting.

If your Testosterone isn't literally on the low end of female range when you're on a Deca only cycle (or NPP), your Nandrolone is probably laced with something or it's bunk, or you're getting the wrong test done.

Here are my results below:

Total Testosterone LC/MS-MS Test Results On Only Nandrolone

22.1 ng/dL, which falls on the low end of the female range.

The normal for males is 264 to 916 ng/dL with Labcorp (it varies slightly between different labs).

A man getting a 22.1 ng/dL test result indicates there's essentially no Testosterone in your body.

The Nandrolone, you can conclude is likely Nandrolone as I wouldn't have a 22.1 ng/dL Testosterone level if my body was trying to restart its HPTA and I also would have felt like absolute garbage being that androgen deficient if I wasn't functioning off of an exogenous source of another androgen.

Free Testosterone Test Results On Only Nandrolone

This was my Free Testosterone level using direct analog enzyme immunoassay (EIA) with the exact same blood sample where I had a Total Testosterone level of 22.1 ng/dL as determined via LC/MS-MS:

The test results indicate that I have normal Free Testosterone levels, even though I actually have a Total Testosterone level lower than a hormonally deficient female.

This is a perfect example of why you should only refer to sensitive assay test results.

Accurate Free Testosterone testing can only be accomplished via Equilibrium Dialysis or Equilibrium Ultrafiltration.

Sensitive Assay Estradiol Test Results On Only Nandrolone

If you really want to get deep into it, which you should also do, you need to get an Estradiol test to see what your Estradiol levels are at because Nandrolone only aromatizes a small fraction of the amount Testosterone does.

What you can expect with “therapeutic” amounts of Nandrolone are low estradiol levels.

Even if you were on a massive dosage of Deca or NPP, you would still likely have low-normal Estradiol levels.

A friend of mine actually was still Estradiol deficient while on a gram of Deca per week.

I theorize that several of the negative health ramifications that stem from Nandrolone monotherapy could potentially be attenuated to some extent (e.g. severe HDL suppression) via exogenous Estradiol supplementation to maintain healthy physiological levels.

This includes erectile dysfunction, as the true root cause of ED is almost always related to Estradiol not being kept where it should be, rather than androgen deficiency, but that is another topic for another time.

To determine if you have legitimate Nandrolone, you also need to get an Estradiol test, and frankly you should really be getting one anyways just see how much you aromatize to begin with, especially if you are embarking on a deca only cycle.

If you are doing a deca only cycle (or NPP) it is quite likely you will limit your potential progress and hinder your health if you force your body to operate in a state of Estrogen deficiency.

The problem with the most common Estradiol test is that it is also not sensitive enough to detect Estrogen accurately in males.

If you get the standard Estradiol blood test that utilizes Roche ECLIA (electrochemiluminescence immunoassay), you're going to get an inaccurate result.

This was my test result on only Nandrolone using the suboptimal Roche ECLIA methodology:

The Roche ECLIA methodology indicates that I have 36.8 pg/mL Estradiol in my blood, which is a pretty standard and healthy level for men.

It makes you question though, how could I possibly aromatize enough to reach 36.8 pg/mL when I only have 22.1 ng/dL Testosterone in my blood?

How could I possibly have an Estradiol level not only just in range, but on the high end of normal?

The reason is that this test is useless for men and will give a wildly inaccurate result.

This was my Estradiol level on only Nandrolone using the superior Sensitive Assay LC/MS/MS Estradiol test.

The sensitive assay test result shows only 9.9 pg/mL.

That's almost 30 pg/mL of a difference compared to the standard Roche ECLIA test.

The sensitive assay Estradiol test is also done by Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS-MS).

If you're a male, and you're trying to figure out what your estradiol (E2) is at, you need to get the sensitive assay test, otherwise you will get a brutally inaccurate test result.

I would have thought my Nandrolone was faked with Testosterone going off of the standard Testosterone and Estradiol test results.

More importantly, in the context of a man trying to nail his TRT dosage, you can imagine the implications this kind of inaccuracy would have on his health.

He could easily end up popping Aromatase Inhibitors and using nonsensical dosages of Testosterone simply because he never saw what his test results were using a sensitive assay panel.

How To Test If Your Deca Is Real

As you can see, with the sensitive assay versions of these tests, I actually have a tanked Testosterone level and very low Estradiol level.

Obviously, to really check if this Nandrolone is Nandrolone, I had to come off of TRT for a fairly long period of time to get it all out of my system, which is consistent with the rock bottom Testosterone result.

I had a minimal amount of aromatization occurring, which is also right in line with this blood test that shows that my Estradiol is on the borderline of low.

Keep in mind, the male reference range for Estradiol, which is 8 to 35 pg/mL, is general.

Most men will have impaired physiological function or hindered muscle building potential with less than 15-20 pg/mL in my experience.

Not to mention health markers and literal bones that rely on healthy levels of Estrogen for maintenance.

Typically, 30 pg/mL is where I feel best.

I had to pay extra to get these sensitive assay tests, but it's worth it to see what's really going on.

Otherwise, I would have totally misinterpreted what's going on.

The takeaway of this is that Nandrolone can register as Testosterone in blood test results and you need to get high sensitivity LC/MS-MS hormone panels to see exactly what's going on in your body.