Growth hormone peptides
Peptides that ask your pituitary to release its own growth hormone, plus growth hormone itself.
Everything here is a way of asking the pituitary for growth hormone instead of injecting the hormone itself. Two families do the asking. GHRH analogs like sermorelin and CJC-1295 copy the signal the hypothalamus sends; GHRPs like ipamorelin and GHRP-2 copy ghrelin and hit a separate receptor. Stacking one of each is common because the two push different buttons.
The appeal of working upstream is that release still follows your own pulses and a feedback loop stays in place, so the ceiling is lower than injected growth hormone. The catch is that the ceiling is genuinely lower and depends on having a pituitary that responds. That is why age and baseline matter more here than dose does.
Tesamorelin and macimorelin are FDA-approved, each for a narrow use: tesamorelin for abdominal fat in people with HIV, macimorelin as a test for adult growth hormone deficiency. Growth hormone itself is a prescription drug, sermorelin is available through compounding pharmacies, and anamorelin is approved in Japan for cancer-related wasting. The rest are research chemicals, and nearly all of them are bannable in tested sport.
Raises your own growth hormone and is proven to shrink deep belly fat. Approved for HIV-related belly fat.
Signals your pituitary to release a pulse of your own growth hormone, with little effect on hunger or stress hormones.
The short-acting version: a quick growth hormone pulse that clears fast. Usually paired with ipamorelin.
A shortened copy of the hormone that prompts growth hormone release. Gentler than injecting the hormone itself.
Two growth hormone signals in one vial. The CJC-1295 is almost always the no-DAC kind, also sold as Mod GRF 1-29.
A copy of the hormone that triggers growth hormone, with an anchor (the DAC) that keeps it working for days.
Two growth hormone signals in one injection, each working through a different receptor.
The older cousin of the CJC-1295 and ipamorelin blend, with GHRP-2 in ipamorelin's place.
A stronger growth hormone pulse than ipamorelin, with some rise in appetite and stress hormones.
A potent growth hormone releaser. The body adapts to it quickly, so it stops working well with continued use.
A daily pill that keeps growth hormone and IGF-1 raised around the clock, with no injections.
Lab-made growth hormone itself, injected directly. The most powerful option, the priciest, and prescription-only.
Sold as a cleaner successor to MK-677, also called Acetamoren. There is no published research on it at all.
The same idea as the CJC-1295 and ipamorelin combo, using the older, shorter-acting sermorelin.
A pill that raises appetite and lean mass in cancer wasting. Approved in Japan, and US regulators were not convinced.
The stomach's own hunger hormone, a 28-residue peptide with a fatty chain and the natural key to the ghrelin receptor; tested in small trials, never approved.
From the same 1980s research program as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, and the family member development moved past.
Banned by name on the WADA prohibited list. Beyond that, almost nothing is published about what it is.
A four-amino-acid peptide for the same receptor as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, with no human research behind it at all.
A five-amino-acid member of the GHRP family. What is published about it stops at its molecular weight.
Given once by mouth, as a test of whether the pituitary can release growth hormone. Nobody takes it repeatedly.
A ghrelin-mimicking pentapeptide built to speed stomach emptying in gastroparesis, dropped in 2020.
Distributing HGH for anti-aging is a federal felony carrying five years. Sermorelin lost to it commercially in 2008 and can still be legally compounded.
Two GHRH analogs tested for the same condition. One completed two Phase 3 trials and got approved. The other's Phase 2 was halted in 2006 and never restarted.
Both are FDA approved. Tesamorelin asks your pituitary for growth hormone and HGH is the hormone itself, and only one is a felony to distribute off-label.
One name, two drugs: one has a measured half-life and three published human trials, the other has never been tested in a person.
They act on different receptors and are usually sold in the same vial. Each has human trials; the combination everyone buys has none.
Same receptor, a pill against an injection. MK-677 has far more human data, and that is exactly why we know more about what is wrong with it.
Two growth hormone peptides sold side by side. One was an approved drug and can still be compounded on prescription. The other was voted down in October 2024.
Three act on the GHRH receptor and one copies ghrelin. Only tesamorelin is approved, and the two with the weakest outcome data were both voted down by the FDA in late 2024.
Common questions
What is a growth hormone secretagogue?
It is a compound that asks your own pituitary to release growth hormone, rather than supplying growth hormone directly. GHRH analogs and ghrelin-mimicking GHRPs are the two main families.
Are growth hormone peptides the same as HGH?
No. HGH is the hormone itself, injected directly. Secretagogues work upstream, so the release still follows your body's own pulsing pattern and depends on a working pituitary.
Are growth hormone peptides legal?
Growth hormone itself is a prescription drug, and most secretagogues on this page are sold as research chemicals rather than approved medicines. Status varies by compound, and each compound page lists its own.