Sermorelin has a documented dose for exactly two uses, both from its time as an approved drug called GEREF: a one-time diagnostic test of the pituitary, and nightly treatment of growth hormone deficiency in children. Everything written about adult dosing since then rests on a handful of small studies, and this page reports those doses as what the studies used, not as a recommendation.
Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of growth-hormone-releasing hormone [1], which acts on the pituitary to release growth hormone in pulses. Its side effects are covered in sermorelin side effects, and what a peptide is, and why most are injected, in what are peptides.
What the approved product was supplied as
FDA’s 2013 notice lists the approved GEREF presentations: 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg vials for treating idiopathic growth hormone deficiency in children with growth failure, and a 0.05 mg ampule for testing whether the pituitary can secrete growth hormone [2]. Both were discontinued in 2008, and the notice records FDA’s finding that neither was withdrawn for reasons of safety or effectiveness.
The diagnostic dose
The 1999 review describes the test as a single intravenous dose of 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight [1]. The growth hormone response that follows is fast and fairly specific, which is what made it useful for diagnosis, though the review notes a normal response cannot rule out a deficiency that starts in the hypothalamus rather than the pituitary.
The treatment dose in children
For treatment, the review describes once-daily injections under the skin of 30 micrograms per kilogram, given at bedtime, as effective in some prepubertal children with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency [1]. The review also reports that the same total given as a continuous infusion or in three divided doses produced smaller gains than once-daily somatropin.
The largest trial of that regimen treated 110 previously untreated prepubertal children for up to a year [3]. Among the 86 eligible for the efficacy analysis, mean height velocity rose from 4.1 cm a year at baseline to 8.0 cm at 6 months and 7.2 cm at 12 months, and 74% were judged good responders at 6 months. The study was open-label, with no placebo group.
What adult studies used
In a 1992 study, 10 healthy older men injected both 0.5 mg and 1 mg under the skin twice a day, in random order, each for 14 days [4]. Growth hormone and IGF-1 rose significantly only on the higher dose, which brought them back to the levels measured in young men.
In a 1997 study, 11 men aged 64 to 76 injected 2 mg once each night for 6 weeks [5]. Nighttime growth hormone release rose, but IGF-1 did not, and body composition did not change. The authors concluded that a single nightly dose was less effective than multiple daily doses, so even the timing of an adult dose is an open question in this record.
What these doses do not tell you
None of these studies tested sleep, recovery or aging as outcomes. Only the 1997 study measured muscle strength, in 11 men, and none of the adult studies ran longer than six weeks. How sermorelin compares with a growth hormone peptide that works through a different receptor is in sermorelin vs ipamorelin, and the sleep studies of this hormone family are in peptides for sleep. A prescriber sets any actual dose.