For years, when people discuss oral steroids (also called oral products), the conversation focuses on tablets or capsules. Users often debate the proper timing for taking these oral steroids, whether ingestion should happen on an empty stomach or after a meal, and the exact volume of water needed for swallowing.
Lozenges disappear in the United States. They make room for oral steroids in suspension, which are also known as oral liquids. Tablets compress active ingredients with fillers. Oral suspensions dissolve the ingredient in sterile water inside a dropper bottle.
Origins of liquid oral suspensions
Active ingredients in the form of an oral suspension have always been used in laboratories and for pharmaceutical research purposes. The first medicines or products to be launched on the market in this form were, believe it or not, drugs for erectile dysfunction: When Pfizer patented the drug, all the other pharmaceutical companies wanted to jump on this highly lucrative bandwagon, but the patent for the tablets was held solely and exclusively by Pfizer, so other companies decided to market their sildenafil in other forms, such as gels, sublingual films, and, indeed, liquid Viagra.
In the world of steroids or PEDs (Performance Enhancement Drugs), the first category to be widely marketed in the form of oral suspensions were SARMS, which, as veterans reading this will surely know, were initially all purchased in dropper bottles. SARMS appeared first in suspension form. SERMS and anti-estrogens followed them. For a few years now, oral steroids (even the most classic ones) have been available in the form of oral suspensions in America and are increasingly popular, to the point of having surpassed the old pills: even here on this site, Liquid Anavar is the best-selling oral steroid, with Liquid Winstrol following closely behind. However, newer oral steroids like Liquid Dianabol or Liquid Anadrol are increasingly gaining popularity. We also find other secretagogue-type substances such as MK677.
Benefits of liquid suspensions over tablets
Let’s start from the assumption that the difference in terms of disadvantages and advantages is truly minimal, but there are definitely advantages in favor of the oral liquid steroids compared to the tablet form.
- PURITY: It’s not that the active ingredient in the tablets isn’t pure (much depends on the manufacturer), but on average, a tablet contains less than 50% active ingredient by volume or weight, with the remainder consisting of thickening agents, fillers, and excipients. The purity of the tablets is therefore more compromised than that of 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 in liquid form and therefore do not need to be dissolved in the stomach, which speeds up absorption and reduces the risk of stomach problems that tablets and capsules can cause (leaving no discomfort even when taken on an empty stomach).
- COMFORT‘: A 30-ml bottle often contains an amount of active ingredient equivalent to nearly two large boxes of the product—it’s more concentrated and takes up less space, especially when traveling. Tablets limit you to a specific pill size and fixed dose, whereas using a dropper allows exact control over the amount you take. Sometimes, all you have to do is add the liquid suspension to a shake or other beverage, and you won’t even notice you’re taking it.
- PRICE: Tablet compression requires machinery and a fairly extensive automation line; moreover, excipients and fillers also come at a cost. Tablet compression requires expensive machinery, extensive automation lines, and costly fillers, meaning that suspending pure powder in water is far more economical for producing oral steroids.
