Product Overview
Ipamorelin is a selective growth hormone secretagogue, developed under the laboratory code NNC 26-0161. Selectivity is the whole point of the molecule. Most ghrelin-receptor peptides also lift cortisol, prolactin or appetite; this one was built to release growth hormone while leaving those signals comparatively undisturbed, and that difference is why it appears in almost every peptide catalogue.
Generic Peptides offers 2 mg, 5 mg and 10 mg freeze-dried vials. None corresponds to a licensed product, because there is no licensed product: the peptide exists for research, and the schedules circulating in vendor material are conventions rather than approvals. Hexarelin sits at the opposite end of the same family, stronger but shorter-lived in effect.
The pharmacokinetics set the rhythm. Human clinical data put the half-life at roughly two hours, which is long enough to be practical and far too short for a single weekly shot. Growth hormone release after an injection is measurable inside the first hour, while the effects users notice, better sleep and quicker recovery, arrive over weeks. The peptide is named explicitly in class S2 of the doping rules and is prohibited at all times.
Dosage Protocol
The figures below are vendor and community convention. A human dose for sporting use has not been confirmed in peer-reviewed sources, and the sources checked describe no separate female schedule.
| Item | Figure | Basis |
| Research amount | 200-300 mcg per injection | Vendor and community convention |
| Frequency | 2-3 injections daily | Fits the roughly 2-hour half-life |
| Timing | Empty stomach, 2 hours after food | Eating blunts the growth hormone reply |
| Block length | 12-16 weeks, then 4 weeks off | Vendor protocol |
| Female | No separate data | Sources contain none |
Preparation is simple arithmetic. Diluting the 5 mg vial with 2 ml of bacteriostatic water yields 2.5 mg in each millilitre, so 250 mcg fits in a tenth of a millilitre, or 10 units on a U-100 syringe. The smaller vial is different: 1 ml there leaves 2 mg per millilitre, which puts 200 mcg in a tenth. Doubling the volume in the 10 mg vial reproduces the middle strength.
Suggested Protocols
Research convention joins a ghrelin-receptor compound to a GHRH-receptor one, because the two switches are separate and asking through both produces more hormone than either achieves alone.
Further reading on the shelf: Tesamorelin for the stabilised GHRH route with clinical data behind it, GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 for the less selective ghrelin options, IGF-1 LR3 for the growth factor downstream of growth hormone, and Somatropin for the hormone itself. The timing rule applies to all of them: an injection into a full stomach wastes most of the response.
What to Expect
- Sleep and recovery change first. Most reports about better rest and faster recovery belong to the opening one to three weeks, and the change is subtle enough that a written note of how each week feels is more useful than memory.
- Body composition takes months. This is a long protocol, 12 to 16 weeks by vendor convention, not a short cycle. Nothing about that timeline resembles a steroid run, and anyone expecting visible change in a fortnight is likely to abandon it early.
- The release is brief. Growth hormone responds within about an hour, but the subjective effect builds slowly and disappears quickly between shots.
- Frequency is not optional. A two-hour half-life means several injections a day if a level is to be maintained at all.
- The human figures are thin. Amounts used for sport come from vendor material, not from reviewed human trials.
- Fluid and joints can react. Oedema, joint pain and muscle ache are described for the growth hormone peptide class, especially when the amount climbs.
- Testing rules are strict. Class S2 applies to any athlete subject to doping control.
Side Effects and Management
Because the stress hormones are largely spared, most complaints here are mechanical or class-related rather than hormonal.
Post-Cycle Therapy (Axis Untouched)
No recovery drug is required. This peptide stimulates the body's own growth hormone release and never suppresses the gonadal axis, so a SERM protocol addresses nothing, and the sources describe none.
Keep the lyophilised powder cool and dark. A mixed solution belongs in the refrigerator, and the exact lifespan of these particular vials after reconstitution has not been confirmed by the vendor. A cloudy solution should be discarded rather than used, and repeated freezing and thawing will destroy a peptide long before its expiry date does.
