Guides / Sermorelin before and after: what the studies report

Sermorelin before and after: what the studies report

What three published studies in older adults measured before and after weeks of sermorelin-type treatment: what changed, what did not, and what remains unknown.

Last revised November 12, 2026. This page is not medical advice.

The studies

We found three published studies that gave GHRH(1-29) or a close analog to older adults and measured the result. All three are small and short.

StudyParticipantsTreatmentDuration
Corpas, 1992110 healthy men, average age 68, compared with 9 young men0.5 mg or 1 mg under the skin, twice daily14 days at each dose
Vittone, 1997211 healthy men aged 64 to 76 with low IGF-I2 mg under the skin, nightly6 weeks
Khorram, 1997310 women and 9 men aged 55 to 71A modified analog, 10 micrograms per kilogram nightly, after 4 weeks of placebo16 weeks

What changed

  • Growth hormone. It rose in all three studies.123
  • IGF-I. It rose at the higher twice-daily dose over 14 days.1 It did not change with a single nightly injection over 6 weeks.2 In the 16-week study it rose within 2 weeks and returned toward baseline by week 16.3
  • Strength. Two of six strength measures and one endurance test improved after 6 weeks.2
  • Lean mass. It increased in men only in the 16-week study.3
  • Skin thickness. It increased in both men and women after 16 weeks.3
  • Well-being and libido. Both improved in men, not in women.3

What did not change

  • Body fat and weight. Six weeks of treatment did not change weight, waist-to-hip ratio or scan measures of muscle and fat.2 In the 16-week study, body weight was unaffected and there was no change in body composition other than lean mass in men.3
  • Sleep. Sleep quality, assessed by questionnaire, was unaffected in both men and women.3
  • Bone density. No change after 16 weeks.3
  • Blood sugar and blood pressure. Fasting glucose and blood pressure were unchanged.13

Provider pages often lead with better sleep and fat loss. In these studies, those are the outcomes that did not move.

What is not known

These studies enrolled 10 to 19 treated adults for 14 days to 16 weeks, and they measured hormone levels and short-term markers. A 2018 review of this class of drugs found that few long-term, rigorously controlled studies had examined their efficacy and safety, and called for evaluation of long-term safety, including cancer incidence and mortality.4

A 2008 review concluded that the overall balance of benefits and risks of growth hormone supplementation in normal aging remained uncertain.5 A 2026 review notes the absence of regulatory approval for physique or performance uses.6

None of these studies tested a compounded product sold online, a dissolving tablet or a lozenge.

Sources

  1. Corpas E, et al. Growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone-(1-29) twice daily reverses the decreased GH and insulin-like growth factor-I levels in old men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1992;75(2):530-5. Read November 12, 2026.
  2. Vittone J, et al. Effects of single nightly injections of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH 1-29) in healthy elderly men. Metabolism. 1997;46(1):89-96. Read November 12, 2026.
  3. Khorram O, Laughlin GA, Yen SS. Endocrine and metabolic effects of long-term administration of [Nle27]growth hormone-releasing hormone-(1-29)-NH2 in age-advanced men and women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1997;82(5):1472-9. Read November 12, 2026.
  4. Sigalos JT, Pastuszak AW. The Safety and Efficacy of Growth Hormone Secretagogues. Sex Med Rev. 2018;6(1):45-53. Read November 12, 2026.
  5. Hersch EC, Merriam GR. Growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone and GH secretagogues in normal aging: Fountain of Youth or Pool of Tantalus? Clin Interv Aging. 2008;3(1):121-9. Read November 12, 2026.
  6. Dominikowski A, et al. The emerging landscape of performance-enhancing peptides modulating GH-IGF1 axis. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2026;17:1822475. Read November 12, 2026.

Nothing on this page is medical advice. See the medical disclaimer.