Page last checked 2026-08-12

Research compound · not FDA-approved

Sermorelin

Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of the hormone that prompts growth hormone release. It is the shortest piece that still does the job at the pituitary.

What matters first

Why people look it up: Anti-aging and wellness clinics sell it for energy, body composition and sleep.
What the evidence shows: None of that is what it was approved for. As Geref it was an American medicine for testing pituitary function and for growth failure in children. That product was withdrawn. The one adult study on this page ran 14 days and measured hormone levels, not how anyone looked or felt.
Dose status: Sermorelin is not FDA-approved, so no dosing label exists for it. The sections below explain what researchers tested and what remains unknown.

Evidence snapshot

Foreign approval or limited human data

The fastest way to see what kind of evidence this page is built on.

Regulation: Not FDA-approvedNo US prescribing label
Dose source: Human study3 reported dose rows
Safety evidence: 7 listed safety findingsCommon and serious effects shown apart
Sources: 6 cited sourcesMedical review complete · 2026-08-12

Open the shareable evidence image

Sermorelin at a glance: foreign approval or limited human data, dosing basis, regulatory status, safety coverage, and cited-source count. These details summarize the available sources; they are not treatment recommendations.

Further down: research and dosing details · how good the evidence is · questions

Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-12open the primary sources

What is known about Sermorelin

Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of growth hormone-releasing hormone — the shortest piece of the natural hormone that still does its job at the pituitary. Unlike most compounds in this registry it was once an approved American medicine, sold as Geref and used mainly as a diagnostic for pituitary function and in childhood growth failure. That product was taken off the market, and the adult anti-aging use it is now sold for was never the indication it was approved for.

Sermorelin research and regulatory details: evidence quality, approval status, doses, handling, and presentation.
Topic	Value
Strongest source	limited human data
FDA approval	Not FDA-approved
Studied dosing	30 mcg per kilogram of body weight, once daily at bedtime, in 110 previously untreated prepubertal growth-hormone-deficient children; mean height velocity rose from 4.1 cm/yr at baseline to 8.0 at six months and 7.2 at twelve, and 74% were rated good responders at six months — from clinical trials
Studied dosing	0.5–1 mg twice daily for 14 days in healthy men of about 68; only the 1 mg arm raised 24-hour growth hormone and IGF-I significantly above the men’s own baseline — from clinical trials
Studied dosing	1 mcg per kilogram of body weight, as one dose in a growth-hormone stimulation test — a diagnostic push given in a clinic, not a course of treatment — from clinical trials
What people report using	200–300 mcg once daily, as a flat quantity — where every clinical number above was set per kilogram of body weight, and the largest of those trials ran in children rather than in anyone choosing it — no trial has tested this quantity
Typical vials	5 mg · 6 mg · 9 mg · 15 mg

Every row links back to a source listed below. These facts are for reference, not a personal recommendation.

The row headed “what people report using” is not evidence. No trial produced that quantity. It is printed because it is what circulates, and because it is better read here, beside what the studies actually did, than on a page that is selling the vial. It describes a practice. It is not a starting point.

What the evidence for Sermorelin is

People have received this compound in a documented setting, or it has approval outside the United States. The available human evidence is still too limited to show a clear dose-and-result pattern for US use.

limited human data

What it establishes: It shows that people have received it and that some human information exists.
What it does not establish: It does not prove that the same dose is appropriate in the United States or that uncommon and long-term risks are known.

Check the country, study size and reason it was used. Do not treat limited human data as an FDA-approved schedule.

Where Sermorelin is in clinical trials

No trial of this compound is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.

That is worth sitting with. Nobody has registered a study to find out whether Sermorelin works in people, so no result is coming and no date is worth waiting for. Sellers are not waiting for that work either.

A registered study means a sponsor filed a plan and started enrolling. It is not evidence the drug works, and most drugs tested in people never reach a pharmacy. Sponsors write and update these sources themselves; the National Library of Medicine publishes them without checking them.

ClinicalTrials.gov · retrieved 2026-08-23

Every compound we track, and what stage each one has reached →

Regulatory status

Today’s market came from the withdrawal of the branded product, not from any finding against it.

The branded medicine left the market, and its removal was not a safety action. A medicine pulled that way leaves a compounding pathway open. That is why this peptide sits on pharmacy formularies while its neighbors here do not.

The pathway governs how a pharmacy prepares it, not what it achieves. FDA has separately told a seller so in writing. Labeling stock for research use only does not change what a product is, where the surrounding site markets it for people.

Full regulatory tracker →

How Sermorelin compares

Each page says which kind of comparison it is: one trial that tested both, or two separate trials read side by side — which is much weaker, however close the numbers look.

The sermorelin half of tesamorelin vs sermorelin

Each page in tesamorelin vs sermorelin on its own terms, rather than folded into sermorelin.

Where to go next on Sermorelin

The schedule, the side effects and the mixing math each have their own page.

The sermorelin trial dosing program, arm by arm

See what each sermorelin trial group received; this is not an approved schedule.

Every reaction on the sermorelin page, with its frequency

5 common and 2 serious sermorelin reactions, each carrying its own source.

Convert a sermorelin amount to units on a U-100 barrel

Every step of the sermorelin arithmetic is printed, so the result can be checked by hand.

Reconstituting sermorelin at 5 mg, step by step

The 5 mg sermorelin table itself, not a general rule applied to an unrelated vial size.

Choosing a water volume for a 6 mg sermorelin vial

How the water volume changes concentration, draw size and doses per 6 mg sermorelin vial.

The testosterone page sermorelin appears on

3 of the 4 testosterone rows rest on reported use and nothing more, with sermorelin as context

Reconstituting sermorelin at 15 mg, step by step

The 15 mg sermorelin table itself, not a general rule applied to an unrelated vial size.

What each water volume does to the 9 mg sermorelin vial

Every option for the 9 mg sermorelin vial, with an example draw on a U-100 barrel.

The sleep page sermorelin appears on

4 of the 5 sleep rows rest on reported use and nothing more, with sermorelin as context

Who else is sold for longevity besides sermorelin

What people take it for and what the longevity page shows stay in separate columns, including sermorelin

Safety notes

The approved product is discontinued — no current labeling exists for any use
Every quantity on this record comes from a published trial, not from a label; two of the three are per kilogram of body weight and do not convert to a vial without a weight
The historical approval covered pituitary diagnosis and childhood growth failure, not adult aging
The one adult study here ran for 14 days and measured hormone levels, not body composition, strength, sleep or any outcome a person would notice
Pharmacy and research channels supply different vial strengths, so a protocol quoted in milligrams may not match the vial in hand
A compounding pathway governs how a preparation is made, and establishes nothing about whether it works

Questions about Sermorelin

Is Sermorelin FDA-approved?

No. There is no prescribing label for it, so no approved dose exists — the regulatory status section above has the detail.

How is Sermorelin taken?

Trials study it both by injection under the skin and by drip or injection into a vein. The table above keeps each route and schedule separate.

How does Sermorelin differ from the other compounds in this class?

Sermorelin has been studied in people, but it works through a different system from GLP-1 and amylin drugs. Its doses and results are not directly comparable with theirs.

What is not known about Sermorelin?

It does not prove that the same dose is appropriate in the United States or that uncommon and long-term risks are known.

Is there a Sermorelin dosing schedule on this site?

Not a schedule — there is no approved schedule to publish here. What you get instead is the trial dosing program: the doses each arm received and how the protocol worked up to them. The studied range was 30–30 mcg per kilogram of body weight, once daily at bedtime, in 110 previously untreated prepubertal growth-hormone-deficient children; mean height velocity rose from 4.1 cm/yr at baseline to 8.0 at six months and 7.2 at twelve, and 74% were rated good responders at six months. See what the trials tested.

Questions readers ask

What are the downsides of taking sermorelin?

The largest one is that nobody has watched it for long. The single adult study ran fourteen days and measured hormone levels, not sleep, strength or body shape. Nobody has published long-term safety data for it.

The reactions on record mostly arrive without a rate: injection pain, flushing, nausea, dizziness and headache. Two carry real numbers. Antibodies against the hormone turned up in some treated children, and serum phosphate rose in the older men.

Is sermorelin like Ozempic?

No. Ozempic is a brand of semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist which FDA has approved for type 2 diabetes. Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of growth hormone-releasing hormone, and it acts on the pituitary instead.

The evidence gap is just as wide as the biology one. Semaglutide has an approved label carrying a dose schedule. Sermorelin’s own approval ended in 2009, so no current label exists for any use.

What not to mix with sermorelin?

Nobody has published an interaction list for sermorelin. The branded product left the market in 2008 and its approval ended the year after, so no current label carries one. The trials behind this page gave the peptide on its own and never set it beside another drug.

Anything naming specific combinations was not read off a document. Your prescriber holds your full medicine list, and that is where the question belongs.

What does sermorelin really do?

It tells the pituitary to release growth hormone, and that is the part the trials measured. In healthy men of about sixty-eight, only the higher of two doses lifted growth hormone and IGF-I above their own starting levels.

Past that point, nobody has measured anything. People buy it hoping for better sleep, recovery or body shape. No published trial has tracked one of those.

6primary sources, each with the day we read it — open the documents used on this page