Compounds
Hexarelin Dosage: Studied Doses
Hexarelin dosage from the human studies: the intravenous, under-the-skin, nasal and oral doses tested in the 1990s, what each did, why the effect faded with twice-daily use, the seller charts as claims, and why we give no reconstitution example.
Published October 21, 2026 · 7 min read
Key takeaways
- Hexarelin has no approved dose. The studied doses are 0.5 to 2 mcg/kg intravenously, 1.5 to 3 mcg/kg under the skin, 20 mcg/kg in the nose and 20 to 40 mg by mouth, mostly given once in hormone experiments.
- The growth hormone (GH) response tops out early: 1 mcg/kg intravenously produced almost the same peak as 2 mcg/kg. More hexarelin does not buy proportionally more GH.
- The longest adult schedule, 1.5 mcg/kg under the skin twice daily for 16 weeks (about 105 mcg per injection at 70 kg), produced a fading GH response and no change in IGF-1, fat, lean mass or bone.
- Seller charts of 100 to 200 mcg once or twice daily match the studied amounts better than most research-peptide charts. They have no better outcome data behind them.
- We give no reconstitution example or units table: no US pharmacy may compound hexarelin in 2026, so there is no legal product to dose.
The direct answer: hexarelin has studied doses but no approved or validated dose. In 1990s human studies it was given at 0.5 to 2 mcg/kg intravenously, 1.5 to 3 mcg/kg under the skin, 20 mcg/kg in the nose and 20 to 40 mg by mouth, mostly as single doses to measure the growth hormone (GH) response. The longest adult schedule, 1.5 mcg/kg twice daily for 16 weeks, faded and changed nothing measurable. Our hexarelin profile covers the evidence, side effects and legal status; hexarelin vs ipamorelin compares it with the peptide it is most often weighed against.
The studied doses
| Study | Dose, route and frequency | People and duration | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imbimbo 1994 | 0.5, 1 and 2 mcg/kg intravenously, single doses | 12 healthy men; double-blind, placebo-controlled | Peak GH 26.9, 52.3 and 55.0 ng/mL versus 3.9 on placebo; GH peaked at about 30 minutes and was back to baseline within 4 hours (Imbimbo 1994) |
| Ghigo 1994 | 1 and 2 mcg/kg intravenously; 1.5 and 3 mcg/kg under the skin; 20 mcg/kg nasal; 20 and 40 mg by mouth; single doses | 12 healthy young volunteers | Dose-related GH rises by every route; bioavailability 77% under the skin, 4.8% nasal, 0.3% oral (Ghigo 1994) |
| Maccario 2002 | 1.5 mcg/kg under the skin, two or three times in one day | 6 healthy young men; 24 hours | 24-hour GH rose equally with two or three injections; IGF-1, prolactin, ACTH and cortisol over the day unchanged; a later test dose released less GH (Maccario 2002) |
| Frieboes 2004 | 50 mcg four times, hourly from 10 p.m. | 7 young healthy volunteers; one night versus placebo | Less deep sleep; GH, prolactin, ACTH and cortisol up (Frieboes 2004) |
| Ghigo 1996, nasal | 1.25 mg nasal three times daily (about 18 mcg/kg) | 7 adults aged 67 to 80; 8 days | GH response maintained; IGF-1 not significantly changed (Ghigo 1996) |
| Ghigo 1996, oral | 20 mg by mouth three times daily (about 300 mcg/kg) | 7 women aged 63 to 80; 15 days | GH response maintained; IGF-1 up slightly, from 141.6 to 156.0 mcg/L (Ghigo 1996) |
| Rahim 1998 | 1.5 mcg/kg under the skin twice daily | Healthy older adults; 16 weeks | GH response 45% lower at week 16, back to baseline 4 weeks after stopping; IGF-1, fat, lean mass and bone density unchanged (Rahim 1998) |
| Klinger 1996 | 60 mcg/kg nasal three times daily | 7 prepubertal short children; 6 to 10 months | Growth velocity 5.3 to 7.4 cm a year; GH response to a nasal test dose halved within a week (Klinger 1996) |
Three things matter in reading that table. Most of these were hormone experiments, not treatments: a single dose, blood drawn every 15 to 30 minutes, the result a GH curve. Only three studies gave hexarelin for longer than a day, and only one of them, in children, recorded a clinical change. And the dose-response curve is flat at the top: in the placebo-controlled study, doubling the intravenous dose from 1 to 2 mcg/kg raised peak GH by about 5% (Imbimbo 1994).
Our arithmetic, labeled as arithmetic
Most of the studies dosed by body weight. For a 70 kg adult, the weight-based doses work out as follows. These are conversions, not doses.
| Studied dose | For a 70 kg adult |
|---|---|
| 0.5 mcg/kg intravenously | 35 mcg |
| 1 to 2 mcg/kg intravenously | 70 to 140 mcg |
| 1.5 to 3 mcg/kg under the skin | 105 to 210 mcg |
| 20 mcg/kg nasal | 1.4 mg |
Injected under the skin, about three quarters of the dose was effectively available compared with intravenous dosing (Ghigo 1994), consistent with the studied subcutaneous doses being set about 1.5 times the intravenous ones.
The charts sellers circulate
| What the charts say | Where it comes from | How it compares with the studies |
|---|---|---|
| 100 to 200 mcg under the skin, once or twice daily | Forum and seller dosing guides, as summarized in a 2026 review (Dominikowski 2026) | Close to the studied 1.5 to 3 mcg/kg; the twice-daily version was tested for 16 weeks with no change in IGF-1 or body composition |
| '8 to 12 weeks on, 4 weeks off' | Forum and seller guides (Dominikowski 2026) | No study tested cycles; in the 16-week study the GH response recovered within 4 weeks of stopping |
| 'Microdosing', well below 1 mcg/kg | Marketing language, not a study term | In the dose-response study, 0.5 mcg/kg produced about half the peak GH of the higher doses; no study tested repeated low doses |
These are claims, not doses. They are better aligned with the literature than the charts for most research peptides, which tells you the sellers read the 1990s papers. What the papers do not supply is evidence that any of these schedules improves muscle, fat, recovery or anything else in an adult.
Frequency, timing and cycling
More injections, less per injection. In young men given 1.5 mcg/kg two or three times in one day, the third injection added nothing to 24-hour GH output, and a test dose at the end of the day released less GH than usual and no longer raised ACTH or cortisol (Maccario 2002). Within a single day the pituitary was already responding less.
Weeks of use, a fading response. On twice-daily injections the GH response to a test dose was lower from the first week, significantly so by week 4, and 45% lower at week 16 (Rahim 1998). In children on nasal hexarelin, the response halved within a week, stayed lower for six months and had only partly recovered three months after stopping, although growth velocity still rose (Klinger 1996). Short courses look different: three-times-daily nasal or oral hexarelin for 8 to 15 days in older adults did not blunt the response (Ghigo 1996).
Night dosing. Bedtime injection is standard advice for GHRH analogs such as sermorelin. For hexarelin, the only sleep study found the opposite of what users want: four 50 mcg doses from 10 p.m. reduced the deepest stage of sleep and raised ACTH and cortisol in the first half of the night (Frieboes 2004).
Why there is no reconstitution example or units table
People searching for a hexarelin dosage usually also want to know how much bacteriostatic water to add to a vial and how many units to draw. We are not going to give that.
- No pharmacy may make it. Hexarelin was never approved, fails every test for compounding under section 503A and appears in none of FDA's compounding categories, as our hexarelin profile sets out. Every vial for sale is a research product.
- The arithmetic would describe an unknown. Reconstitution math assumes the vial holds what its label says. A research vial's content, purity and sterility have not been verified by anyone.
- Reconstitution help is what FDA cites. FDA's 2026 warning letters to research-peptide sellers pointed to dosing guides, calculators and bundled bacteriostatic water as evidence that the vials were drugs for human use, as our legal tracker records.
Our reconstitution calculator exists for medications a pharmacy has dispensed with a labeled concentration. Hexarelin has neither. For the GH secretagogue a pharmacy can dispense, see the dosing section of our sermorelin profile.
Bottom line
A truthful hexarelin dosage chart has studied doses in it, which is more than most research peptides can say: 0.5 to 2 mcg/kg intravenously, 1.5 to 3 mcg/kg under the skin, 20 mcg/kg in the nose and 20 to 40 mg by mouth. Those doses reliably produce a GH pulse that tops out around 1 to 2 mcg/kg. The one adult schedule tested for months, 1.5 mcg/kg twice a day, faded and changed nothing measurable, and night dosing made sleep shallower. Seller charts sit close to the studied numbers; what they lack is a reason to expect a different result. With no legal product in the United States, there is no label to follow and no dose we can recommend.
Frequently asked questions
+What is the hexarelin dosage per day?
There is no approved or validated daily dose. The longest adult study gave 1.5 mcg per kilogram under the skin twice a day, about 210 mcg a day for a 70 kg adult, for 16 weeks; the growth hormone response faded and IGF-1 and body composition did not change. Other studies used single doses or one to two weeks of nasal or oral dosing three times a day. Seller charts of 100 to 200 mcg once or twice a day were written by sellers and forums.
+How much hexarelin should I take?
We do not recommend any amount, and no clinician can prescribe a legal product: hexarelin is not FDA-approved and no US pharmacy may compound it. What the studies show is that 1 to 2 mcg per kilogram intravenously already produces close to the maximum growth hormone pulse, and that more frequent dosing makes each dose work less well.
+How often should hexarelin be injected?
No study established a schedule. Studies used twice-daily injections for 16 weeks and two or three injections within a single day. In the one-day study, three injections raised 24-hour growth hormone no more than two did, and prior doses blunted the response to a later test dose. Frequency appears to buy less than sellers suggest.
+How long should a hexarelin cycle be?
No study tested cycles. In older adults on twice-daily injections, the growth hormone response fell over the first weeks and was 45 percent lower at 16 weeks, then returned to baseline four weeks after stopping. The '8 to 12 weeks on, 4 weeks off' pattern in seller charts is consistent with that recovery time, but the same study found no change in IGF-1, fat or lean mass while people were taking it.
+What dose of hexarelin was used in studies?
Intravenous single doses of 0.5 to 2 mcg per kilogram in healthy adults, with 2 mcg per kilogram close to the maximum effect; 1.5 and 3 mcg per kilogram under the skin; 20 mcg per kilogram in the nose; 20 and 40 mg by mouth; and four 50 mcg doses during one night in a sleep study. Children with short stature received 60 mcg per kilogram in the nose three times a day for months.
+Does oral or nasal hexarelin work?
Both routes raised growth hormone in the 1990s studies, but inefficiently: about 4.8 percent of a nasal dose and 0.3 percent of an oral dose was effectively available compared with an intravenous dose. That is why the oral doses tested were 20 to 40 milligrams. In older adults, three-times-daily nasal or oral dosing for 8 to 15 days kept working, and the oral course raised IGF-1 slightly.
+How do you reconstitute hexarelin?
We do not give reconstitution instructions for hexarelin. No licensed pharmacy may make it, so every vial is a research product with unverified content and sterility, and FDA's 2026 warning letters cited reconstitution guides and bundled bacteriostatic water as evidence that research peptides were being sold as drugs. Precise arithmetic on an unverified vial would be precise about nothing.
+Is hexarelin better taken at night?
There is a reason to think not. In a sleep-laboratory study, four 50 mcg doses between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. reduced the deepest stage of sleep and raised ACTH and cortisol in the first half of the night compared with placebo. The bedtime advice that suits GHRH analogs such as sermorelin does not transfer to hexarelin.
Sources
- StudyImbimbo BP et al. Growth hormone-releasing activity of hexarelin in humans. A dose-response study. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 1994;46:421-5. (1994)
- StudyGhigo E et al. Growth hormone-releasing activity of hexarelin, a new synthetic hexapeptide, after intravenous, subcutaneous, intranasal, and oral administration in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1994;78:693-8. (1994)
- StudyMaccario M et al. Impact of two or three daily subcutaneous injections of hexarelin, a synthetic growth hormone (GH) secretagogue, on 24-h GH, prolactin, adrenocorticotropin and cortisol secretion in humans. Eur J Endocrinol 2002;146:310-8. (2002)
- StudyFrieboes RM et al. Hexarelin decreases slow-wave sleep and stimulates the secretion of GH, ACTH, cortisol and prolactin during sleep in healthy volunteers. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2004;29:851-60. (2004)
- StudyGhigo E et al. Short-term administration of intranasal or oral Hexarelin, a synthetic hexapeptide, does not desensitize the growth hormone responsiveness in human aging. Eur J Endocrinol 1996;135:407-12. (1996)
- StudyRahim A, O'Neill PA, Shalet SM. Growth hormone status during long-term hexarelin therapy. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1998;83:1644-9. (1998)
- StudyKlinger B et al. Desensitization from long-term intranasal treatment with hexarelin does not interfere with the biological effects of this growth hormone-releasing peptide in short children. Eur J Endocrinol 1996;134:716-9. (1996)
- ReviewDominikowski A et al. The emerging landscape of performance-enhancing peptides modulating GH-IGF1 axis: bridging the gap between clinical evidence and patient self-administration. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2026;17:1822475. (2026)
Written by
The Peptide Doctrine Editorial Team
Our editors write from primary sources — peer-reviewed studies, FDA documents and pharmacy records — and grade every claim by the strength of its evidence. See our editorial policy for how articles are researched, reviewed and updated.
Disclosure. The Peptide Doctrine is an independent editorial project. It currently has no sponsor and runs no advertising: we accept no payment for reviews, rankings or placements, we run no affiliate links, and we do not sell or link to "research-use" peptide vendors. Content is educational and is not medical advice.
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