DOSE CONTEXT / RESEARCH FRAMING ONLY
Sermorelin dosage, as recorded in the research literature.
The doses, routes, and timing used in published studies — described as study protocols, never as a recommendation for human use.
The short version
This page reports sermorelin dosage the way the studies recorded it — what was given, to whom, by what route — not a recipe for taking it. In the children's growth trial, sermorelin was injected under the skin once a day at bedtime. In studies of older men, it was injected twice a day for two weeks. In lab pharmacology studies, small doses were given into a vein to measure the growth-hormone response. The peptide clears fast, in about ten minutes. Everything below describes research protocols, with each figure tied to its study.
Doses used in the research literature
Sermorelin dosage in the published record spans pediatric treatment, aging research, and pharmacology. In the pediatric GH-deficiency efficacy work, GHRH(1-29) was given at 30 mcg/kg/day subcutaneously at bedtime [1][8]. In aging research in older men, the doses were 0.5 mg and 1 mg subcutaneously twice daily for 14 days [2]. In short children with normal GH, 5 mcg/kg subcutaneously each evening for 6 months was studied [10]. For pharmacokinetics and GH-release characterization, intravenous doses of 0.25-2 mcg/kg were used in healthy men [3], and diagnostic GHRH stimulation historically used a single intravenous bolus of about 1 mcg/kg [11]. These are study protocols; none is a human dosing recommendation, and growth hormone secretagogues are prohibited in sport (see below).
Subcutaneous injection in the studies
Subcutaneous injection was the primary route across the efficacy literature. The pediatric registration trial dosed once daily subcutaneously at bedtime [1]; the older-men study dosed subcutaneously twice daily for 14 days [2]; the short-children study dosed subcutaneously each evening [10]. Bedtime timing was deliberate — it aligns the GHRH signal with the body's largest natural GH pulse during early slow-wave sleep. Intravenous dosing was reserved for pharmacokinetic and diagnostic work [3][11].
Routes studied and why bioavailability matters
Three routes appear in the record, with very different efficiency. Subcutaneous injection was the workhorse. Intravenous administration was used in PK and diagnostic studies [3]. Intranasal delivery was tried historically but reached only ~3-5% bioavailability [3], and a 6-month pediatric intranasal pilot at 50 mcg/kg three times daily failed to increase height velocity and provoked antibody formation [7]. That low mucosal absorption is also why oral, sublingual, and troche "sermorelin" formulations are widely criticized in research-user communities as ineffective — peptides are degraded in the gut and poorly absorbed across mucosa.
Half-life and stability
Sermorelin's plasma half-life is short — on the order of ~10-12 minutes after intravenous administration — yet a single dose keeps serum GH elevated for roughly 3 hours [3]. That brevity drove the development of longer-acting analogs (the D-Ala2 substitution and the DAC technology behind CJC-1295). On stability: lyophilized sermorelin acetate is reconstituted with sterile diluent and then typically refrigerated, because aqueous peptide solutions degrade — the reason it is supplied as a dry powder. Compounded preparations are prepared under USP <797> sterile-compounding standards.
Dose and the growth-hormone response
Where the dose-response relationship was actually measured, it was in pharmacology, not in self-dosing. In healthy men, intravenous GHRH(1-29)NH2 elicited significant GH release at doses as low as 0.25 mcg/kg, with maximal release at roughly 1-2 mcg/kg [3] — beyond which more peptide did not buy proportionally more GH. The pediatric efficacy doses (30 mcg/kg/day subcutaneously) and the older-men aging doses (0.5-1 mg subcutaneously twice daily) were the regimens that produced measured endpoints — accelerated height velocity [1] and restored 24-hour GH/IGF-1 [2] — over weeks to a year. The lesson from the record is that the GH response saturates, and that timing and route mattered as much as the number on the syringe. None of this is a prescription; it is a description of what investigators measured.
How long studies ran
Study durations were set by the endpoint, not by a fixed "course." Pharmacokinetic GH-release work measured a single dose over hours [3]. The older-men GH/IGF-1 reversal was assessed over 14 days [2]. The older-adult cognition trial ran 20 weeks [6]. Pediatric height-velocity outcomes were measured over a full year, and a long-term pediatric study continued GHRH(1-29) at 30 mcg/kg/day for up to 24 months in responders [1][8]. There is no established standard length for adult use because there is no established adult indication — the durations in the literature track what each study was trying to measure.
A note on framing
Everything on this page is research context. The doses above are what investigators administered to defined study populations by defined routes — not instructions for self-administration. Growth hormone secretagogues, including GHRH analogs, are prohibited in sport by WADA under the hormone-and-metabolic-modulators category (S2), and dedicated LC-MS/MS detection methods exist [13]. Long-term adult tolerability data are limited, and authorities have cautioned that secretagogue use for aging is not established [5]. Where you see a specific milligram or microgram figure on this page, read it as "studied at X in [population], by [route]" — the framing the research supports — and nothing more.