Sermorelin Reconstitution Calculator
Sermorelin is a prescription-class compound that also has a published human dose, and neither half of that sentence is simple. Sermorelin acetate was formerly FDA-approved, as Geref for paediatric growth hormone deficiency and as Geref Diagnostic for pituitary GH-reserve testing, and it was withdrawn from the US market for commercial rather than safety reasons. No current label was retrievable for it, so nothing on this page is label-derived. In the US it remains available only through compounding pharmacies on prescription, or through research-chemical vendors, and the adult body-composition and anti-ageing use those listings describe was never an approved indication. One adult human range is published, and it rests on a single fourteen-day crossover in ten men. It is in the table below with its source, reported as the literature states it rather than as a recommendation. The calculator converts a vial size and a volume of bacteriostatic water into mg/ml and U-100 syringe units, which is arithmetic about the vial and not about what to inject.
Curated by Dosavy from published literature and regulator labels. Published 11 September 2026, last reviewed 11 September 2026. No clinician reviews this page.
Enter a target dose above to see the draw.
What the evidence says
| Experience | Route | Range | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | Subcutaneous | 0.5–1 mg[1]Both arms of a single crossover trial, not a titration: ten healthy non-obese men aged around 68 took low-dose (0.5 mg) and high-dose (1 mg) GHRH(1-29) subcutaneously twice daily for 14 days each, separated by a 14-day washout. Dose-related increases were seen in all measures, but the increases in mean 24-hour GH, area under the GH peaks, peak amplitude and IGF-1 reached significance only at the 1 mg dose, after which those parameters no longer differed from healthy young men. Duration studied was 14 days; nothing longer has been tested at this dose in adults. | Twice daily |
- BeginnerSubcutaneous
0.5–1 mg[1]
Twice daily
Both arms of a single crossover trial, not a titration: ten healthy non-obese men aged around 68 took low-dose (0.5 mg) and high-dose (1 mg) GHRH(1-29) subcutaneously twice daily for 14 days each, separated by a 14-day washout. Dose-related increases were seen in all measures, but the increases in mean 24-hour GH, area under the GH peaks, peak amplitude and IGF-1 reached significance only at the 1 mg dose, after which those parameters no longer differed from healthy young men. Duration studied was 14 days; nothing longer has been tested at this dose in adults.
Published ranges, reported as the literature states them and numbered to the sources at the foot of this page. Not a recommendation.
The single range below is the only human sermorelin regimen in this packet that is adult, subcutaneous, repeated-dose, and stated as an absolute dose rather than per kilogram. It is thin evidence: a 14-day crossover in 10 healthy old men, with GH and IGF-1 as the endpoints and no clinical outcome measured. Three other bodies of human data exist and are deliberately excluded from dosing_ranges. (1) Paediatric growth trials dosed 30 or 60 mcg/kg/day subcutaneously divided into three daily doses for 6 months; both were weight-based and both produced less growth than somatropin itself (height velocities of 9.2 and 9.3 cm/year versus 14.6 cm/year on GH), and nearly every child developed anti-GHRH antibodies. (2) Intravenous and intranasal pharmacology studies in healthy men used 0.25–2 mcg/kg IV and about 50 mcg/kg intranasally, different routes, weight-based, and single-dose GH-stimulation probes rather than therapy. (3) The 5-month trial of [Nle27]GHRH-(1-29)-NH2 at 10 mcg/kg nightly in age-advanced men and women tests a norleucine-substituted analogue, NOT sermorelin, and is not used here. Note the divergence worth flagging to any user: the compounding-pharmacy figures recorded in community_practice (200–300 mcg once nightly) are several times lower per day than the only trial dose that showed a significant effect (1 mg twice daily). Nobody has tested the compounded regimen.
Sermorelin at a glance
- Category
- GH secretagogue
- Half-life
- Not established
- Routes
- Subcutaneous
- Regulatory status
- Prescription only
- Also sold as
- Sermorelin, sermorelin, sermorelin acetate, GRF 1-29, GHRH (1-29), GHRH(1-29), GHRH(1-29)NH2, Geref
Mechanism
Sermorelin is GHRH(1-29)NH2, the shortest N-terminal fragment of endogenous growth hormone-releasing hormone that retains full biological activity. It binds GHRH receptors on pituitary somatotrophs and stimulates synthesis and pulsatile release of endogenous growth hormone, which in turn raises IGF-1. Because it acts upstream of the pituitary rather than replacing GH, the resulting GH release remains pulsatile and stays subject to somatostatin negative feedback, and it requires an intact pituitary to work at all. It is very short-acting: after intravenous injection it is eliminated rapidly, although GH levels stay elevated for roughly three hours.
Reconstitution
Compounded lyophilised sermorelin is reconstituted with bacteriostatic water before subcutaneous use. There is no current FDA-labelled diluent volume, so the resulting concentration (and therefore how many units on a syringe correspond to a given microgram dose) depends entirely on what volume the compounder or the user adds. Confirm the concentration on the dispensing label before calculating any dose.
Storage
No FDA storage monograph is currently in effect for any marketed sermorelin product. Compounded sermorelin is dispensed either as a lyophilised powder or as a premixed refrigerated solution with a pharmacy-assigned beyond-use date; follow the dispensing pharmacy's label, which is the only storage instruction with any authority behind it.
Frequency in practice
The only adult repeated-dose trial in this packet used twice-daily subcutaneous injection. US compounding pharmacies instead list once nightly at bedtime, commonly 5 nights out of 7, a different regimen at a lower dose.
Regulatory
Sermorelin acetate was formerly FDA-approved (as Geref, for paediatric growth hormone deficiency, and as Geref Diagnostic for pituitary GH-reserve testing) and was withdrawn from the US market for commercial rather than safety reasons. No current DailyMed label was retrievable in the Stage 1 fetch for this packet, consistent with that withdrawal, so nothing in this entry is label-derived. Sermorelin remains available in the US only through compounding pharmacies on prescription, or through research-chemical vendors; the adult body-composition and anti-ageing use those listings describe was never an approved indication. GHRH analogues are prohibited at all times in sport.
What to know before anything else
There is no FDA-approved sermorelin product on the US market. Anything you obtain is either a compounded preparation, whose potency and sterility rest on the compounder, or a research chemical of unverified identity. Its former approval does not transfer to the vial in your hand.
Adult use for body composition, sleep or anti-ageing is off-label and is not supported by any human outcome trial. The only adult trial in this packet measured GH and IGF-1 levels over 14 days, not body composition, strength or any clinical endpoint.
Immunogenic in sustained use: in a 6-month randomised paediatric trial, all 20 children on high-dose and 19 of 20 on low-dose GHRH(1-29)NH2 developed anti-GHRH antibodies (they disappeared by 9 months after stopping). Antibody formation was not correlated with growth, but it is a real consequence of chronic dosing that has never been characterised in adults.
Raises IGF-1 by design, and the long-term consequences of sustained IGF-1 elevation are not established. The label of tesamorelin (the one currently approved GHRH analogue) contraindicates use in active malignancy and in patients whose hypothalamic-pituitary axis is disrupted; no equivalent current labelling exists for sermorelin, so there is no authoritative contraindication list for it.
Requires an intact pituitary. In people with pituitary rather than hypothalamic GH deficiency it will not work, and in the packet's trial data the GH response to GHRH(1-29)NH2 is markedly attenuated in longstanding GH deficiency.
Compounding pharmacies list roughly 200–300 mcg once nightly, while the only adult trial used 500–1000 mcg twice daily. Do not read the trial dose as a licence to escalate: it was a 14-day biomarker study in 10 men, not a safety-tested regimen.
Reviewed interactions
These are the pairs Dosavy holds reviewed, cited data on. A combination that is not listed here has not been assessed, which is not the same as being safe.
- Cautionwith Tesamorelin
Duplicative: both are GHRH analogues acting at the same receptor, so combining them raises GHRH-receptor exposure without adding a mechanism. Tesamorelin is the one with an approved indication and an approved dose; adding sermorelin means an uncharacterised total GHRH stimulus against a label written for monotherapy.
Sermorelin is GHRH(1-29)NH2 and tesamorelin a stabilised GHRH(1-44) analogue; both agonise the pituitary GHRH receptor.
Sermorelin questions
Is sermorelin FDA-approved?
Not any more. Sermorelin acetate was approved as Geref for paediatric growth hormone deficiency, and withdrawn from the US market for commercial rather than safety reasons. A withdrawn approval does not transfer to the vial in your hand: what is sold today is either a compounded preparation, whose potency and sterility rest on the compounder, or a research chemical of unverified identity. GHRH analogues are also prohibited at all times in sport.
Is there an established human dose for sermorelin?
One adult range is published and it is thin evidence. It comes from a 1992 randomised crossover trial with biomarker endpoints in ten healthy non-obese men aged around 68 (PMID 1379256), given subcutaneous GHRH(1-29) twice daily for fourteen days per arm. Growth hormone and IGF-1 were the endpoints and no clinical outcome was measured. The published range below is that trial, and nothing longer has been tested in adults. Three other bodies of human data exist and are deliberately excluded from it: six-month paediatric growth trials, which dosed by body weight and in three divided daily doses; intravenous and intranasal pharmacology studies in healthy men, also weight-based and single-dose GH-stimulation probes rather than therapy; and a five-month trial of a norleucine-substituted analogue, which is not sermorelin.
How does sermorelin work?
It is GHRH(1-29)NH2, the shortest N-terminal fragment of endogenous growth hormone-releasing hormone that retains full biological activity. It binds GHRH receptors on pituitary somatotrophs and stimulates synthesis and pulsatile release of your own growth hormone, which in turn raises IGF-1. Acting upstream of the pituitary rather than replacing growth hormone means the release stays pulsatile and stays subject to somatostatin negative feedback. It also means an intact pituitary is required: where the deficiency is pituitary rather than hypothalamic it will not work at all, and the response is markedly attenuated in longstanding growth hormone deficiency. It is very short-acting, eliminated rapidly after intravenous injection, although growth hormone levels stay elevated for roughly three hours.
How does sermorelin compare with growth hormone itself?
The paediatric trials are the only head-to-head data here, and growth hormone won them: children on GHRH(1-29)NH2 reached height velocities of 9.2 and 9.3 cm per year, against 14.6 cm per year on somatropin. The two also work against each other: somatropin supplies growth hormone directly and suppresses the pituitary through negative feedback, the pathway sermorelin depends on, so the combination is self-defeating on the sermorelin side.
What is the difference between sermorelin and ipamorelin?
They act at different receptors. Sermorelin is a GHRH analogue working at the pituitary GHRH receptor. Ipamorelin is an agonist at the growth hormone secretagogue receptor GHS-R1a, the ghrelin receptor, and was described as the first selective GH secretagogue because in swine it released growth hormone without raising ACTH or cortisol and without altering FSH, LH, prolactin or TSH. The useful comparison stops there: this library records no published human dosing data for ipamorelin at all, against one thin adult range for sermorelin, so the two are not on the same evidentiary footing.
What is known about using sermorelin long term?
Less than you would want. In a six-month randomised paediatric trial all twenty children on the high dose and nineteen of twenty on the low dose developed anti-GHRH antibodies; they disappeared by nine months after stopping and were not correlated with growth, but that consequence of chronic dosing has never been characterised in adults. Sermorelin raises IGF-1 by design and the long-term consequences of sustained IGF-1 elevation are not established. Tesamorelin, the one currently approved GHRH analogue, is contraindicated in active malignancy and where the hypothalamic-pituitary axis is disrupted; no equivalent current labelling exists for sermorelin, so there is no authoritative contraindication list for it. The longest adult exposure on record here is fourteen days, and adult use for body composition or sleep is off-label and unsupported by any outcome trial.
Why does the concentration on a compounded sermorelin vial matter so much?
Because nothing standardises it. There is no current FDA-labelled diluent volume for sermorelin, so the concentration, and therefore how many units on a syringe correspond to a given microgram figure, depends entirely on what volume of bacteriostatic water the compounder or the user added. Confirm the concentration on the dispensing label before doing any arithmetic with it. Storage has the same hole: no FDA storage monograph is in effect for any marketed sermorelin product, so the dispensing pharmacy's beyond-use date is the only storage instruction with authority behind it.
Every number above, and where it came from
One source, numbered where it is used. Each one links to the paper or the label itself, not to a summary of it.
- [1]Growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone-(1-29) twice daily reverses the decreased GH and insulin-like growth factor-I levels in old men.
The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 1992 · Randomised crossover trial (biomarker endpoints) · n=10
The rest of the math
- Reconstitution calculatorThe full version of the tool above, with syringe barrel sizes and IU conversion.
- Vial longevityHow many doses a vial holds and the date it runs out.
- Cost per doseVial price against doses drawn, so two vial sizes can be compared honestly.
- Half-life and decayFirst-order clearance, time to steady state, and what remains at a given hour.
You worked out the draw. Now log this dose.
A calculator answers once and forgets. Dosavy keeps the concentration you mixed, the doses you actually took, and a reminder for the next one, with the same evidence labels you see on this page.