Triptorelin_Dosage, benefits & legal status
Also known as Trelstar, Triptodur, Decapeptyl, triptorelin pamoate
An FDA-approved hormone drug for prostate cancer, sold by research vendors for something else entirely.
Common vial size is what vendors typically sell, not a recommendation. Enter your own vial in the calculator.
What is Triptorelin?
Plain language first. The technical label stays, but it never stands alone.Overview
A real prescription cancer drug. Bodybuilders buy it from websites to restart testosterone, using an effect that lasts a couple of weeks before the drug does the opposite.
A synthetic decapeptide GnRH agonist. Initial receptor agonism produces an LH and testosterone surge, followed by pituitary desensitisation and gonadotropin suppression on continuous exposure. FDA-approved as Trelstar for advanced prostate cancer and Triptodur for central precocious puberty, both as depot formulations.
What it's used for
Approved for advanced prostate cancer and for central precocious puberty in children. Sold by peptide vendors for restarting testosterone production after a steroid cycle, which is not an approved use.
How does Triptorelin work?
What it does in the body, and where.This drug does the opposite of what its name suggests, and the timing is the reason.
- 01A first dose raises hormonesTriptorelin activates the GnRH receptor, so an initial dose produces a surge in luteinising hormone and testosterone. That surge is why prostate cancer patients can experience a temporary flare.
- 02Continuous exposure then shuts it downThe pituitary responds to constant stimulation by downregulating. Sustained dosing therefore suppresses testosterone to castrate levels, which is the therapeutic goal in prostate cancer.
- 03The community use exploits the first phaseSingle-dose use to restart the testicular axis after a steroid cycle relies on the initial surge rather than the suppression. That use is not on any label and has not been studied in a controlled trial.
What else is it used for?
Each use below carries its own evidence level. Approved means regulators have cleared it for that purpose. Investigational means it is in trials. Early research means it is being studied and is not established.
- Advanced prostate cancer, as an approved indicationFDA-approved
- Central precocious puberty in children, as an approved indicationFDA-approved
- Endometriosis and uterine fibroids, approved in some regionsClinical use
- Restarting testosterone production after anabolic steroid use, off-label and unstudiednone
How much, and do you cycle it?
The range, and whether you take breaks.Set by an FDA label, monthly to six-monthly depot. No established patternNo range
No published human study establishes a schedule.
How long does it stay in the body?
The half-life, and where the figure comes from.Depends entirely on formulationFDA label
The immediate-release peptide clears within hours. The approved products are depot formulations designed to release over one, three or six months, so the half-life of the peptide tells you almost nothing about the duration of effect.
Source: FDA prescribing information
You can compare this against the whole library to see where it sits.
How do I dose and price it?
Enter your vial and your dose. Pick a mix. We show the draw and the cost.The vial holds a fixed amount of drug. Adding more water does not make more drug, it just spreads it thinner, so you draw a bigger number on the syringe for the same dose.
Choose your mix
Measuring the water1 mL = one full 100-unit syringe.
Your draw
0 / 100 unitsTriptorelin starts at $11.01 across 4 vendors, typically $27.00 per mg.
4 listings, last read Aug 27, 2026. Shipping and card fees are not included.
How do you store it?
Before mixing, and after.Dry powder in the freezer or fridge. Once mixed, fridge, and use within about a month.
Unmixed lyophilized Triptorelin keeps for a long time cold. Once you add water the clock starts: most reconstituted vials hold up for roughly 28 to 30 days at fridge temperature. Keep it out of light, and do not freeze it after mixing.
What are the side effects and cautions?
Known cautions and warnings for this compound.Who should avoid it
- Pregnancy, where it is contraindicated
- Breastfeeding
- A known allergy to GnRH analogues
- Any use without a prescriber, given the effect on the reproductive axis
Stop and get help
- Worsening bone pain, urinary obstruction or new neurological symptoms during the initial flare
- Any allergic reaction
- Signs of a pituitary problem including sudden severe headache or vision change
Common effects
- Hot flushes, reduced libido and erectile difficulty follow from testosterone suppression.
- Bone density loss with prolonged use.
- An initial testosterone flare in the first weeks.
Where this page says nothing is established, that means nobody has studied it, not that a compound is safe.
Is Triptorelin approved?
And where the numbers on this page come from.Yes. Triptorelin is FDA approved and available on prescription in the United States.
- Approval statusFDA-approved
- RouteInto a muscle or under the skin
- CheckedAugust 2026
- Approved outside the USThis does not change the United States position above.
What has happened recently
Supplied only as long-acting depot formulations, holding hormone suppression for one to six months at a time. No approved single-dose product exists in any of its indications, which matters because the use sold on the research market depends on one shot doing something the approved products are specifically built to prevent. Suppression to castrate levels is the intended effect, not a side effect.
You can compare this against the whole library, or read how to check a seller.
- DoseFrom the drug label. The manufacturer tested this range and a regulator reviewed it.
- Vial sizeFrom what vendors typically list; not a recommendation.
- Reviewed24 August 2026
What else is like Triptorelin?
Others in Sexual and hormonal, side by side.If you're weighing Triptorelin, it's worth reading PT-142, Leuprolide (Lupron), and Goserelin (Zoladex) in the same class.
An FDA-approved hormone drug for prostate cancer, sold by research vendors for something else entirely.
- Dose
- Set by an FDA label
- How often
- Monthly to six-monthly depot
A Palatin-style code number with no published compound behind it.
- Dose
- Research only
- How often
- Not established
The GnRH agonist that shuts hormones down by overstimulating them first.
- Dose
- Set by the label and the depot formulation
- How often
- Monthly to six-monthly depot
A GnRH agonist given as an implant under the skin rather than an injection.
- Dose
- Set by the label
- How often
- Monthly or 3-monthly implant
10What these words mean
Show glossary +
What these words mean
- 503A and 503B
- The two kinds of compounding pharmacy in US law. A 503A pharmacy prepares medicine for one named patient. A 503B outsourcing facility makes larger batches under stricter manufacturing rules.
- Agonist
- Something that switches a receptor on. The opposite is an antagonist. It blocks the receptor instead.
- Amino acid
- The building blocks that link together in a chain to make a peptide or a protein. The order they sit in is what makes one peptide different from another.
- Amylin
- A hormone released alongside insulin that slows the stomach emptying and reduces appetite. Several weight loss compounds copy it.
- Analog
- A compound built to copy a natural one with small deliberate changes, usually so it lasts longer or holds onto its target more tightly.
- Animal study
- Research done in rats, mice or other animals. Most findings do not repeat in people, so an animal result is a reason to keep looking. It is not a reason to act.
- Antibody
- A large immune protein, far bigger than a peptide, engineered to lock onto one specific target. These are made by drug companies and are not sold as research powders.
- Bacteriostatic water
- Sterile water with a tiny amount of preservative, used to mix powdered peptides.
- Banned in drug-tested sport
- Prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA); using it can disqualify a competing athlete.
- Bioavailability
- How much of a dose actually reaches your bloodstream. Most peptides survive stomach acid badly, so most of them are injected instead of swallowed.
- Bioregulator
- Very short peptides from a Russian research tradition, usually two to four amino acids long, sold for supporting a specific organ. Human evidence is thin and most of it is published in Russian.
- Blend
- One vial holding more than one compound, mixed together by the seller. Working out a dose means working out each ingredient separately, because they are rarely present in equal amounts.
- Boxed warning
- The most serious warning the FDA puts on a drug label, printed inside a black border. It flags a risk considered severe enough to sit above everything else on the label.
- Bulks list
- The FDA's list of ingredients that compounding pharmacies are allowed to use. A substance can sit under review on it for years without anything being decided either way.
- Certificate of analysis (COA)
- A lab report on a batch of product. It only means something if it names the batch you actually received, comes from an independent lab, and can be checked with that lab.
- Clinical trial
- A study that gives a treatment to people under a written plan and measures what happens. It is the only kind of evidence that can show something works in humans.
- Compounding
- A licensed pharmacy preparing a medicine to order. Being allowed to compound something is not the same as the FDA approving it, and the two get mixed up constantly.
- Concentration
- How strong the mixed peptide is, in milligrams per milliliter (mg/mL). More water makes it weaker; less water makes it stronger.
- Cycle
- A stretch of time using a compound followed by a break. Most cycling patterns come from community practice. Very few have been tested.
- DAC
- Short for Drug Affinity Complex. An attachment added to a peptide so it grabs onto a blood protein and stays in the body for days instead of minutes.
- Dead space
- The small amount of liquid left sitting inside the needle and hub after you inject. On very small doses it can be a real share of what you meant to take.
- Dilute
- Adding more liquid to make a mix weaker. The amount of peptide in the vial does not change. It is just spread through more water, so each draw is bigger.
- Endpoint
- The result a trial said in advance that it would measure. A study can be reported as positive and still have missed the endpoint it set out to hit.
- FDA approved
- Reviewed by the FDA and cleared for a specific use, in a specific form, at a specific dose. Approval for one use is not approval for another, and approval in another country is not approval here.
- Fragment
- A short piece cut out of a larger natural protein. A fragment can behave very differently from the whole protein it came from, so evidence about one does not transfer to the other.
- Ghrelin
- The hunger hormone. Some growth hormone compounds work by copying it, so they can make you noticeably hungrier.
- GHRH
- A natural signal telling the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. Several compounds copy it.
- GHRP
- A second, separate signal that also triggers growth hormone release, through a different door than GHRH. This is why the two types are often used together.
- GLP-1
- A natural gut hormone that lowers appetite and blood sugar. Drugs that copy it, like semaglutide, are used for weight loss.
- Growth hormone secretagogue
- A compound that nudges your body to release more of its own growth hormone, rather than injecting the hormone itself.
- Half-life
- How long a compound stays active in your body. A longer half-life means you inject less often.
- HPLC
- A lab method that separates out everything in a sample so the amounts can be measured. It shows how much of the main ingredient is there. It does not confirm that the main ingredient is the right molecule.
- In vitro
- Done in a dish or a test tube, on cells outside a living body. It is the earliest kind of evidence there is.
- Injection site
- The spot on the body where you inject. Moving it around gives the skin and fat underneath time to recover between doses.
- Intramuscular (IM)
- An injection into a muscle, using a longer needle.
- Intravenous (IV)
- An injection into a vein. It needs training and equipment and is not something to do at home.
- Investigational
- Still being tested in clinical trials and not yet approved or legally sold for general use.
- Lyophilized
- Freeze-dried into a powder so it keeps longer. That is the white cake or dust in the bottom of an unmixed vial.
- Mass spectrometry
- A lab method that weighs molecules to confirm what they are. HPLC answers how much is in the sample. This answers what it is.
- mcg and mg
- Units of dose. 1 milligram (mg) equals 1,000 micrograms (mcg).
- Myostatin
- A natural brake on muscle growth. Several compounds are built to block it, though human results have been far smaller than the animal work suggested.
- Off-label
- A doctor prescribing an approved drug for something other than its approved use. This is legal and common, and it is different from a compound having no approval at all.
- Orphan drug designation
- A status given to treatments for rare conditions to make them worth developing. It is an incentive, not an approval, and a compound can hold it while being approved for nothing.
- PCAC
- The FDA advisory committee that reviews compounding ingredients. It recommends. It does not approve, and the FDA does not have to follow what it says.
- Peer review
- Other scientists checking a paper before a journal publishes it. It filters out some bad work. It does not make a finding true.
- Peptide vs small molecule
- A peptide is a short chain of amino acids. A few items here (like MK-677 or methylene blue) are small molecules, not true peptides, but people use them the same way.
- Placebo
- A dummy treatment given for comparison. Without one it is very hard to tell a real effect apart from expectation and time passing.
- Purity
- The share of a sample that is the intended compound, usually given as a percentage. A high purity number on the wrong molecule is still the wrong molecule.
- Randomized
- Deciding by chance who gets which treatment, so the two groups are comparable. Studies that skip this are much easier to read the wrong way.
- Receptor
- A docking point on a cell that a compound attaches to. If a cell has no matching receptor, the compound does nothing to it.
- Reconstitution
- Mixing a powdered peptide with liquid (bacteriostatic water) so it can be drawn into a syringe.
- Research only
- No approved dose or use in people. Sold for research and not reviewed by the FDA for safety or quality.
- Stack
- Using more than one compound at the same time. Almost no combinations have been tested together in people, so a stack is usually built on guesswork.
- Sterile water
- Water with nothing added to stop bacteria growing. It works for a single dose, but a vial mixed with it should not be kept and used again.
- Subcutaneous
- An injection just under the skin, into the fat layer, usually with a short, thin insulin needle.
- Titrate
- Starting at a low dose and increasing it slowly over time so your body adjusts and side effects stay mild.
- Trial phases
- The stages of human testing. Phase 1 checks safety in a small group, phase 2 looks for an effect, and phase 3 tests it against a comparison in a large group.
- Units (on the syringe)
- The marks on an insulin syringe. 100 units equals 1 mL. They measure how much liquid you draw, not the dose in milligrams.
Guides for this compound
- How to Reconstitute a Peptide
Mix peptide powder with bacteriostatic water, step by step.
- How to Read an Insulin Syringe
Read the units, convert to millilitres, and draw the exact dose.
- mcg vs mg: The Peptide Dosing Mistake to Avoid
Your vial says mg and your protocol says mcg. Here is the conversion and how to check it.
Last reviewed 24 August 2026
Peptide Decoding is published by Decoded Sciences LLC. We take no payment from vendors for coverage, inclusion or ranking, and our affiliate relationships are disclosed in full.