GH Secretagogues Compared: Sermorelin vs Tesamorelin vs Ipamorelin vs CJC-1295 (Evidence, Dosing, Cost)

Key takeaways

All four make your own pituitary release growth hormone (GH); none is GH. Sermorelin, tesamorelin and CJC-1295 act on the GHRH receptor, ipamorelin on the ghrelin receptor. They differ in evidence, duration of action, legality and price.
Tesamorelin is the only one with large placebo-controlled trials and a current FDA approval: 2 mg a day cut visceral fat about 15% in 26 weeks in 806 adults with HIV-associated belly fat, with a similar effect in one 12-month trial of 60 obese adults without HIV.
Sermorelin has small 1990s trials in older adults: 1 to 2 mg a day raised GH and, on some schedules, IGF-1, with modest strength and lean-mass signals. Clinics prescribe 200 to 500 mcg a night, a fraction of that.
Ipamorelin and CJC-1295 have hormone studies and nothing else, and no trial of the combination. FDA placed both in Category 2 in 2023 and its advisory committee voted against both in late 2024; no US pharmacy may compound them in October 2026.
The real choice is between two: tesamorelin when measured visceral fat is the target and the budget allows, sermorelin for a prescribable, monitored nudge to GH output. Nobody with an active cancer, uncontrolled diabetes or a pregnancy should take any of them.

Sermorelin, tesamorelin, ipamorelin and CJC-1295 are sold for the same reasons (sleep, recovery, lean mass, less belly fat, anti-aging) and often sold together. They are not interchangeable: two can be prescribed and filled by a licensed US pharmacy, two cannot, and only one has large trials behind its main claim. Each has a full profile (sermorelin, tesamorelin, CJC-1295 with ipamorelin); for sermorelin specifically, see the dosage chart and the before and after timeline.

The four at a glance

	Sermorelin	Tesamorelin	Ipamorelin	CJC-1295
What it is	GHRH(1-29), the shortest fully active fragment of GHRH	Full-length GHRH(1-44), stabilized	Five-amino-acid ghrelin-receptor agonist	GHRH(1-29) with four substitutions; the DAC form binds albumin
Receptor	GHRH receptor	GHRH receptor	Ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1a)	GHRH receptor
Duration of one dose	Minutes; one overnight GH pulse	Hours; one daily pulse	About 2 hours; one GH pulse	DAC: half-life 5.8 to 8.1 days; no-DAC: minutes, never studied in humans
Approval status	Formerly approved (Geref, pediatric GH deficiency); withdrawn 2008	Approved (Egrifta 2010, Egrifta WR 2025) for HIV-associated abdominal fat	Never approved	Never approved; development stopped 2006
Human evidence for the marketed use	B: small trials in older adults, 10 to 19 people each	A: 806-patient phase 3 program; B outside HIV (one 60-person trial)	C: one pharmacokinetic study and one failed surgical trial	B for hormone levels only: two trials up to 49 days
Studied dose, route, frequency	1 mg subcutaneous twice daily (14 days); 2 mg nightly (6 weeks); 10 mcg/kg nightly (16 weeks, close analog)	2 mg subcutaneous once daily (26 to 52 weeks); 1.28 mg of Egrifta WR	0.03 mg/kg intravenous twice daily (7 days)	30 to 60 mcg/kg subcutaneous once, then weekly or every two weeks (DAC)
Clinic or seller doses	200 to 500 mcg nightly	1 to 2 mg nightly	100 to 300 mcg nightly	100 to 300 mcg nightly (no-DAC) or 1 to 2 mg weekly (DAC)
Main side effects	Injection-site reactions, flushing, headache, nausea	Injection-site reactions 17% vs 6%, joint pain, edema, paresthesia; new diabetes 5% vs 1%; high IGF-1	Unknown at clinic doses; class effects	Unknown long term; class effects; trough GH elevated for days
Compoundable, October 2026	Yes	No: a biological product; brand Egrifta only	No	No
Monthly cost	$150 to $400 compounded	$2,400 to $2,800 brand (the only legal version)	No legitimate product	No legitimate product

How we compared them

Four criteria, in order: human evidence for the claim each is sold on, graded A to D per our editorial policy; whether a licensed US pharmacy can legally dispense it in October 2026, per are peptides legal?; the safety record; and monthly cost from our October 2026 price survey. Popularity did not count.

Growth hormone itself is left out on purpose: distributing somatropin for anti-aging is a federal crime, which is why this category exists. Its trials in healthy older adults show what raising GH does: about 2.1 kg less fat and 2.1 kg more lean mass, no functional benefit, and more edema, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, gynecomastia and new diabetes (Liu 2007). Every secretagogue below is sold as a gentler route to that effect; none has been tested for it properly.

Sermorelin: the prescribable GH nudge

Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of GHRH. It triggers one short GH pulse and is cleared within minutes, so it is taken at bedtime to ride the body's largest natural pulse. It was approved as Geref for children with GH deficiency (30 mcg/kg at bedtime raised height velocity over 12 months), withdrawn in 2008 for commercial reasons, and remains compoundable because it was once the ingredient of an approved drug (Prakash & Goa 1999).

The adult evidence is three small 1990s trials. Ten men, mean age 68: 1 mg twice daily for 14 days restored 24-hour GH and IGF-1 to the levels of men in their twenties; 0.5 mg twice daily did not (Corpas 1992). Eleven men aged 64 to 76: 2 mg nightly for six weeks raised overnight GH but not IGF-1, improved two of six strength tests, and changed nothing on DEXA (Vittone 1997). Ten women and nine men aged 55 to 71: a stabilized GHRH(1-29) analog at 10 mcg/kg nightly for 16 weeks raised GH 70 to 107% and IGF-1 about 28% by week 4 (drifting back by week 16), thickened skin in both sexes, and raised lean mass in men only; sleep, weight, fat and bone did not change (Khorram 1997).

So 1 to 2 mg a day raises GH in older adults, raises IGF-1 on some schedules, and produces modest, inconsistent downstream effects. Nothing is known about the 200 to 500 mcg a night clinics prescribe; the dosage chart has the arithmetic. Side effects: injection-site reactions, flushing, headache, nausea; the GH-class risks are unstudied for sermorelin itself. Cost: about $150 to $400 a month.

Best for: an adult with a documented low IGF-1 and symptoms who wants the cheapest prescribable option with the overnight pulse preserved, and a clinician who will measure IGF-1 before and 8 to 12 weeks after starting.

Tesamorelin: the one with real trials

Tesamorelin is the full 44-amino-acid GHRH, stabilized so it lasts hours rather than minutes. Same receptor as sermorelin; the difference is evidence and potency. It is the only GHRH analog with a current FDA approval, Egrifta (2010) and Egrifta WR (2025), for excess abdominal fat in adults with HIV and lipodystrophy (Egrifta WR label 2025).

In two pooled phase 3 trials, 806 adults with HIV (84 to 86% men) took 2 mg daily or placebo for 26 weeks: visceral fat fell 24 cm2 against a 2 cm2 rise (treatment effect -15.4%), subcutaneous fat did not change, triglycerides fell 37 mg/dL, IGF-1 rose 108 ng/mL, and those who continued to 52 weeks kept a 17.5% reduction (Falutz 2010). Those switched to placebo lost it, and about 30% never responded; see the tesamorelin profile. Outside HIV there is one trial: 60 abdominally obese adults with reduced GH secretion, 2 mg daily for 12 months, a visceral-fat treatment effect of -35 cm2, better triglycerides and C-reactive protein, no change in subcutaneous fat or glucose (Makimura 2012). Thirty per arm, never replicated.

The side effects are labeled: injection-site reactions in 17% versus 6% on placebo, more joint pain, edema, myalgia and paresthesia, an HbA1c of 6.5% or higher in 5% versus 1%, and an IGF-1 more than two standard deviations above normal in 47% at 26 weeks, which is why the label requires IGF-1 and glucose monitoring. Contraindications: a disrupted hypothalamic-pituitary axis, active malignancy, hypersensitivity and pregnancy (Egrifta WR label 2025). The trials used 2 mg daily of the original formulation; the current labels give 1.4 mg daily for Egrifta SV and 1.28 mg daily for Egrifta WR. Brand Egrifta, the only legal version because FDA regulates tesamorelin as a biological product that cannot be compounded, costs about $2,400 to $2,800 a month; it is weight neutral, and the fat returns when you stop.

Best for: an adult whose visceral fat is out of proportion to weight, a prescriber who will measure IGF-1, glucose and the fat itself, and a budget for indefinite treatment. For ordinary abdominal obesity, GLP-1 therapy has far larger trials; see best peptides for weight loss.

Ipamorelin: selective in pigs, untested in people at clinic doses

Ipamorelin is a five-amino-acid peptide from Novo Nordisk that acts on the ghrelin receptor. Its selling point is selectivity: in pigs it released GH about as well as GHRP-6 without raising ACTH or cortisol, even at doses more than 200 times its effective GH dose (Raun 1998). A real advantage, shown in animals.

The human record is two studies. In 40 healthy men, 15-minute intravenous infusions produced a single GH pulse peaking about 40 minutes after dosing, with a two-hour half-life; IGF-1 was not reported (Gobburu 1999). In 117 adults after bowel resection, intravenous 0.03 mg/kg twice daily for up to seven days did not shorten the time to a first tolerated meal (median 25.3 versus 32.6 hours, p = 0.15) (Beck 2014). No study has measured fat, muscle, strength, sleep or recovery on ipamorelin, or what 100 to 300 mcg under the skin does to GH.

Legally it is finished: Category 2 from September 29, 2023, now listed by FDA as nominated but withdrawn (FDA categories 2026); a 0 yes, 12 no, 1 abstention committee vote on October 29, 2024; and an FDA proposal not to add it to the permitted list (FDA PCAC 2024). Every ipamorelin vial on the US market is a research chemical with no label and no pharmacist; the CJC-1295 and ipamorelin profile has the detail.

Best for: no one, as a purchase, in the United States today.

CJC-1295: engineered to be the opposite of a pulse

CJC-1295 is the sermorelin backbone with four substitutions and, in the DAC form, a linker that binds it to albumin so one dose stimulates the pituitary for more than a week. In two placebo-controlled trials of 28 and 49 days in healthy adults, a single subcutaneous injection raised mean GH 2- to 10-fold for six days or more and IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days; the half-life was 5.8 to 8.1 days; 30 and 60 mcg/kg (about 2 to 4 mg) were best tolerated, with no serious adverse reactions (Teichman 2006). That is the whole controlled evidence base. Its only disease trial was halted in 2006 and never published, and the no-DAC version sold for nightly use has never been tested in a published human study; the CJC-1295 profile has the sources.

The DAC form holds GH troughs up for days, the opposite of the pulse it is marketed on, and whether years of that are harmless is unknown; the longest controlled exposure is seven weeks. The nightly 100 to 300 mcg clinic schedule adds up to 0.7 to 2.1 mg a week, below the single 2 to 4 mg weekly doses that produced the published changes. Legally: Category 2 from September 29, 2023, now listed by FDA as nominated but withdrawn (FDA categories 2026), a 1 yes to 12 no vote on the acetate form on December 4, 2024, and an FDA proposal not to include it (FDA PCAC 2024).

Best for: no one who wants a labeled product. The pulsatile GHRH analog a pharmacy can dispense is sermorelin, the molecule CJC-1295 was built from.

What about MK-677 (ibutamoren)?

It is sold next to these four, so people ask. MK-677 is not a peptide but an oral small molecule acting on the ghrelin receptor, and it has the best body-composition trial of any secretagogue: 65 adults aged 60 to 81, 25 mg daily or placebo, two years. GH and IGF-1 rose to young-adult levels and fat-free mass rose 1.1 kg against a 0.5 kg fall, but visceral fat did not change, weight rose 2.7 versus 0.8 kg, fasting glucose rose about 5 mg/dL with lower insulin sensitivity, and the extra mass produced no gain in strength or function (Nass 2008). FDA placed ibutamoren mesylate in Category 2 in September 2023, its committee voted 1 yes, 13 no against adding it on October 29, 2024, alongside ipamorelin, and it is still in Category 2 (FDA categories 2026); what is sold online is a research chemical.

The evidence, graded on the same claims

The four secretagogues graded on the same two claims: raising GH and IGF-1, and changing body composition
Claim	Grade	What the evidence shows	Sources
Sermorelin raises GH and IGF-1 in adults	B	1 mg twice daily for 14 days restored GH and IGF-1 to young-adult levels in 10 men aged about 68; 0.5 mg did not. 2 mg nightly for 6 weeks raised overnight GH but not IGF-1 in 11 men aged 64 to 76. A nightly GHRH analog at 10 mcg/kg raised IGF-1 about 28% by week 4 in 19 adults aged 55 to 71, fading by week 16.	Corpas 1992; Vittone 1997; Khorram 1997
Tesamorelin raises GH and IGF-1 in adults	A	In 806 adults with HIV, 2 mg daily raised IGF-1 by 108 ng/mL against a 7 ng/mL fall on placebo over 26 weeks; 47% were more than 2 standard deviations above normal, which is why the label requires monitoring. In 60 adults without HIV, IGF-1 rose 86 mcg/L over 12 months.	Falutz 2010; Makimura 2012; Egrifta WR label 2025
Ipamorelin raises GH and IGF-1 in adults	C	One pharmacokinetic study: intravenous infusions in 40 healthy men produced a single GH pulse peaking about 40 minutes after dosing. IGF-1 was not measured, and nothing is published for the subcutaneous microgram doses clinics sell.	Gobburu 1999
CJC-1295 raises GH and IGF-1 in adults	B	Two placebo-controlled trials (28 and 49 days) in healthy adults: one subcutaneous injection of the DAC form raised GH 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more and IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days. The no-DAC form has no human data.	Teichman 2006
Sermorelin improves body composition or strength	C	Six weeks of 2 mg nightly improved 2 of 6 strength tests in 11 older men with no change in DEXA fat or muscle, weight or waist. Sixteen weeks of a nightly GHRH analog increased lean mass in men only and skin thickness in both sexes. No adequately powered trial exists.	Vittone 1997; Khorram 1997
Tesamorelin improves body composition	A	Visceral fat fell 24 cm2 versus a 2 cm2 rise on placebo (treatment effect -15.4%) at 26 weeks in 806 adults with HIV, with subcutaneous fat and weight unchanged and lean mass up about 1.2 to 1.3 kg; in 60 abdominally obese adults without HIV the 12-month effect was -35 cm2. The fat returns when treatment stops.	Falutz 2010; Makimura 2012; Egrifta WR label 2025
Ipamorelin improves body composition	D	No human study has measured fat, muscle or strength on ipamorelin. Its only efficacy trial, intravenous 0.03 mg/kg twice daily after bowel surgery in 117 adults, found no difference from placebo (median 25.3 versus 32.6 hours to a tolerated meal, p = 0.15).	Beck 2014; Raun 1998
CJC-1295 improves body composition	D	No published trial of CJC-1295, with or without DAC, has measured body composition, strength, sleep or recovery; the longest controlled exposure is seven weeks. The nearest data, two years of oral MK-677, added about 1 kg of fat-free mass with no strength gain and higher fasting glucose.	Teichman 2006; Nass 2008

A = strong human trials or meta-analyses · B = small or short human trials · C = observational, mechanistic or indirect human data · D = animal/in-vitro only, or no evidence. Grades describe the evidence, not whether we recommend the use.

On hormone levels all four work, with the evidence falling from tesamorelin to sermorelin to CJC-1295 to ipamorelin. On outcomes, only tesamorelin has shown something a patient can see in a controlled trial, and only in a specific population. The space between the two is where the marketing lives.

Which one, by goal

Visceral (belly) fat. Tesamorelin is the only one with data: about 15% less visceral fat in 26 weeks in HIV lipodystrophy and a similar effect in one 12-month trial without HIV, with no change in weight or subcutaneous fat. The other three have no visceral-fat trial at all. If the real problem is overall weight, GLP-1 drugs remove visceral and subcutaneous fat and weight with far larger trials, and none of the four is the answer.

Sleep. No objective sleep study exists for any of the four in the adults they are marketed to. The physiology favors a short-acting GHRH analog at bedtime: GHRH given as four small pulses in the first hours of the night increased deep and REM sleep in healthy volunteers, while the same amount as a continuous infusion did not (Marshall 1996); the one GHRH-analog trial that asked, by questionnaire, found sleep unchanged after 16 weeks (Khorram 1997). Grade C for sermorelin, D for the rest; CJC-1295 with DAC is the continuous pattern that did not work.

Recovery and muscle. No trial of any of the four has measured injury or training recovery or performance. The nearest signals are the strength and lean-mass findings above: small, in older men, and in HIV lipodystrophy. All four are prohibited in tested sport. Our muscle-growth guide ranks the alternatives.

General GH support (low IGF-1 with symptoms). The one use with a genuine choice between two legal options. Sermorelin and tesamorelin at 1 to 2 mg a day both raise GH and IGF-1 in older adults, tesamorelin more reliably and at a higher price. The endpoint in both cases is a repeat IGF-1 at 8 to 12 weeks; a program that prescribes 200 mcg of sermorelin and never measures it is testing nothing.

Which one, by situation

Pick sermorelin if you have a documented low IGF-1 and symptoms, want the lowest-cost prescribable option with the overnight pulse preserved, and your clinician will measure IGF-1 and glucose before and after. Ask what dose they expect to move IGF-1; the studied doses were 1 to 2 mg a day.

Pick tesamorelin if visceral fat is the specific target, especially at a near-normal weight, if you have HIV-associated lipodystrophy, or if an adequate sermorelin trial did not move IGF-1. Budget $2,400 to $2,800 a month for brand Egrifta indefinitely (insurance generally covers only the HIV indication), plus a waist measurement or scan at baseline and three months.

Pick ipamorelin or CJC-1295 if you are a researcher with an institutional protocol. For a patient in the United States in October 2026 there is no legal product, no outcome data and no pharmacist.

Pick none of them if you have:

an active cancer, or a cancer history the prescriber has not reviewed: GH and IGF-1 are growth signals, and active malignancy is a labeled contraindication for tesamorelin;
diabetes, prediabetes or diabetic retinopathy without an endocrinologist managing it: this class raised glucose or lowered insulin sensitivity in at least one trial, and IGF-1 can worsen retinopathy;
a pregnancy, plans for one, or a baby you are breastfeeding: a labeled contraindication for tesamorelin, and no data for the others;
a pituitary disorder, acromegaly, an intracranial mass, or past pituitary surgery or head irradiation: the drugs need a working pituitary;
a critical illness, or drug testing in sport;
a weight-loss goal (none of the four lowers weight), or no intention of having blood drawn before and after.

Legal status in the United States, October 2026

Compound	Ever FDA-approved?	FDA Category 2?	Advisory committee	Can a US pharmacy compound it?
Sermorelin	Yes (Geref, pediatric GH deficiency; withdrawn 2008 for commercial reasons)	No	Not required: component of a formerly approved drug	Yes, 503A on prescription
Tesamorelin	Yes (Egrifta 2010, Egrifta WR 2025; HIV-associated abdominal fat)	No	Not applicable: regulated as a biological product since March 2020	No: biological products cannot be compounded under 503A or 503B; brand Egrifta only, and off-label prescribing of the brand is the clinician's decision
Ipamorelin	No	No longer: Category 2 from September 29, 2023, now listed as nominated but withdrawn	October 29, 2024: 0 yes, 12 no, 1 abstention; FDA proposes not to include	No
CJC-1295	No	No longer: Category 2 from September 29, 2023, now listed as nominated but withdrawn	December 4, 2024: 1 yes, 12 no (acetate form); FDA proposes not to include	No
MK-677 (not a peptide)	No	Yes, since September 2023	October 29, 2024: 1 yes, 13 no; not added	No

The 2026 changes (twelve peptides off Category 2 in April, six recommended by the committee in July) did not touch any of these. The full picture, including what research-use-only labels mean after FDA's 2026 warning letters, is in are peptides legal?.

Cost, October 2026

Compound	Typical monthly cost	What the price usually includes	What to add
Sermorelin	$150 to $400 compounded; injections advertised from about $120	Medication and clinician follow-up; sometimes labs	Baseline labs $100 to $400 if not included; price scales with dose
Tesamorelin	$2,400 to $2,800 brand (Egrifta); cheaper 'compounded' offers are for a product FDA does not consider eligible for compounding	Medication; brand covered by insurance only for HIV lipodystrophy	Labs; imaging if visceral fat is the target
Ipamorelin	No legitimate price	Nothing: no pharmacy may make it	A research vendor's price buys an unlabeled vial
CJC-1295	No legitimate price	Same	Same
Clinic bundles sold as stacks	Priced with the prescribed compound they come with	One labeled product plus unlabeled ones	Ask which pharmacy fills each item; for the ipamorelin or CJC-1295 half the answer is none

Prices are from the peptide therapy cost guide, collected October 9, 2026; compounded products have no list price, and the first month usually adds a consultation ($0 to $200) and labs.

Stacks

Tesamorelin and sermorelin is legal, with sermorelin compounded and tesamorelin as brand Egrifta, but there is no trial of the pair and no mechanism to add: both act on the same receptor, and the pituitary's output is capped by feedback. Sermorelin and ipamorelin, sold as a blend, has never been tested in a trial, and the ipamorelin half has no legal source; adding it to sermorelin adds an unlabeled research vial to a monitored prescription.

Bottom line

Four molecules, two of which a licensed pharmacy can dispense. Tesamorelin has the evidence and the approval, costs the most, and earns its price only when visceral fat is the measured target. Sermorelin is the cheap, pulsatile, prescribable option with small old trials behind it and a dose gap you should ask about. Ipamorelin and CJC-1295 have hormone studies, no outcome data, no legal supply, and a 2024 committee record that reads 0 to 12 and 1 to 12. The useful question is not which is strongest but which can be prescribed, measured and stopped if it does nothing; that list has two names on it.

Frequently asked questions

+Tesamorelin vs sermorelin: which is better?

For a measured visceral-fat problem, tesamorelin: it is FDA-approved, 806 adults took it in placebo-controlled trials, and 2 mg a day cut visceral fat about 15% in 26 weeks. For a prescribable, lower-cost nudge to growth hormone output with the natural overnight pulse preserved, sermorelin: small 1990s trials show it raises GH and, at 1 to 2 mg a day, IGF-1. Both act on the same receptor; the difference is the size of the evidence and the price, roughly $150 to $400 a month for compounded sermorelin against $2,400 to $2,800 for brand Egrifta, the only legal tesamorelin, which cannot be compounded.

+Can you stack tesamorelin and sermorelin?

Both can be legally prescribed, sermorelin as a compounded drug and tesamorelin only as brand Egrifta, so a clinician could write for both, but there is no trial of the combination and little pharmacological reason for it: both bind the same GHRH receptor on the same pituitary cells, and the GH response has a ceiling set by IGF-1 and somatostatin feedback. Doubling the stimulus mostly doubles the injection-site reactions and the cost. If one of them does not move IGF-1, the usual next step is a dose adjustment measured by a repeat IGF-1, not a second GHRH analog.

+Sermorelin vs ipamorelin: which is better?

Sermorelin, on every criterion we use. It has an FDA approval history, human trials in older adults and a prescription path through licensed pharmacies. Ipamorelin has one pharmacokinetic study in 40 men, one failed surgical trial and no data at the subcutaneous doses clinics sell; FDA put it in Category 2 in 2023 and its advisory committee voted 0 to 12 against adding it to the permitted list in October 2024, so no US pharmacy may compound it in October 2026. The two act on different receptors, which is the basis of the blend marketing, but the blend itself has never been tested.

+Can I use CJC-1295 ipamorelin and tesamorelin together?

No trial has tested that combination, and in the United States there is no legal way to fill it: tesamorelin can be prescribed as brand Egrifta, but CJC-1295 and ipamorelin cannot be compounded by any licensed pharmacy as of October 2026. Tesamorelin and CJC-1295 also act on the same GHRH receptor, so stacking them adds exposure without adding a mechanism. A clinic offering this stack is sourcing at least part of it from research vendors, which means an unlabeled vial next to a monitored prescription.

+Is tesamorelin the same as Ozempic?

No. Ozempic (semaglutide) is a GLP-1 receptor agonist that lowers appetite and produces large reductions in total body weight; tesamorelin raises growth hormone and moves fat out of the visceral compartment without changing weight, which the label describes as weight neutral. For ordinary abdominal obesity, GLP-1 therapy has far larger trials and far larger effects. Tesamorelin is the narrower tool for a visceral-fat problem in someone who is not overweight overall.

+Does ipamorelin target belly fat?

No human study has measured fat in people taking ipamorelin, so nobody knows. The claim is borrowed from tesamorelin, a different molecule acting on a different receptor, which reduced visceral fat by about 15% over 26 weeks in large trials. Ipamorelin's only efficacy trial was for bowel recovery after surgery, given intravenously, and it did not beat placebo. Tesamorelin can be prescribed; ipamorelin cannot be compounded.

+HGH vs tesamorelin: what is the difference?

Growth hormone (somatropin) replaces the hormone itself and produces a flat, sustained level the body never makes on its own; tesamorelin makes your pituitary release GH in pulses, with feedback intact. In healthy older adults, growth hormone shifted about 2 kg of fat to lean mass with no functional benefit and more edema, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and glucose problems, and distributing it for anti-aging is a federal crime. Tesamorelin is approved, prescribable off-label and has its own trials, but it is not a milder form of HGH: it still pushed IGF-1 more than two standard deviations above normal in 47% of treated patients.

+Is ibutamoren (MK-677) a peptide, and is it legal?

It is not a peptide; it is an oral small molecule that acts on the ghrelin receptor, the same target as ipamorelin. It has the best body-composition trial of any secretagogue, two years in 65 older adults, which found about 1 kg more fat-free mass, no change in visceral fat, no gain in strength, higher fasting glucose, more appetite and weight gain. It has never been approved, FDA placed it in Category 2 in September 2023, where it remains, its advisory committee voted 1 to 13 against it in October 2024, and it is not compoundable; what is sold online is a research chemical.

+What is the dosing protocol for CJC-1295?

There is no validated protocol. The human studies gave the DAC form as single subcutaneous doses of 30 to 60 mcg/kg (about 2 to 4 mg for a 70 kg adult), then weekly or every two weeks for up to seven weeks. The nightly 100 to 300 mcg schedules on clinic charts, usually for the no-DAC form, have never been tested in a published human study, and no US pharmacy may dispense either form. We report studied doses so you can judge a claim, not as a recommendation.