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Studies

What the Research Found

Worth knowing: The best evidence comes from children with growth hormone deficiency. Studies in older adults were small, short and did not look at long-term outcomes.

Sermorelin has been studied in three main settings: as a test of pituitary function, as a treatment for children who were not growing well, and as a way to restore growth hormone levels in older adults.

A Test of the Pituitary

Given once into a vein, sermorelin produces a quick rise in growth hormone if the pituitary is working. Reviews found it gave fewer false alarms than older stimulation tests. A normal result could not rule out every form of deficiency, though, so doctors used it alongside other tests rather than on its own.

Children With Growth Hormone Deficiency

  • Geref International Study Group (J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1996): 110 children who had never been treated received daily injections at bedtime for up to a year. Average growth rose from 4.1 cm a year before treatment to 8.0 cm a year after six months and 7.2 cm a year after twelve.
  • Response: after six months about three in four children were judged to have responded well, and bone age did not run ahead of height.
  • Tolerability: blood sugar and other laboratory values stayed normal. The most common complaints in this and other studies were brief facial flushing and pain where the injection went in.
  • Compared with growth hormone: a 1999 review noted that the growth gained with sermorelin appeared smaller than with daily growth hormone, although the two were never compared directly.

Older Adults

Growth hormone release falls with age, which led researchers to ask whether GHRH could bring it back up.

  • Old men, two weeks (J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1992): in 10 healthy men around 68 years old, twice-daily injections at the higher of two strengths raised growth hormone and IGF-1 to the levels seen in young men.
  • Old men, six weeks (Metabolism, 1997): in 11 men aged 64 to 76, a single nightly injection increased night-time growth hormone but not IGF-1. Two of six strength measures improved, while body fat and muscle mass did not change.
  • Men and women, four months (J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1997): 19 people aged 55 to 71 used a closely related GHRH (1-29) peptide every night. IGF-1 rose for about three months and skin became thicker. Men also gained some lean mass and reported better well-being, but women did not. A temporary rise in blood fats was the only side effect noted.

Detection in Sport

Sermorelin is broken down quickly in the body, which makes it hard to find in urine. Anti-doping laboratories have nonetheless built sensitive tests for it and for its main breakdown product, including a method published in 2026 by the Turkish Doping Control Center.

Limits of the Evidence

  • Most adult studies involved a few dozen people at most and lasted weeks or months.
  • None looked at hard outcomes such as falls, fractures or lifespan.
  • Much of the paediatric data came from studies run with the manufacturer.
  • A 2006 commentary argued for GHRH treatment in adults, but this was an opinion piece, not new trial data.

Summary

Sermorelin worked as a pituitary test and helped many children with growth hormone deficiency grow faster. In older adults it raised growth hormone in the short term, with mixed effects on the body. Whether that brings any lasting benefit has never been shown.

References

  1. Guillemin R, et al. Growth hormone-releasing factor from a human pancreatic tumor that caused acromegaly. Science. 1982;218:585-587. PMID 6812220
  2. Rivier J, Spiess J, Thorner M, Vale W. Characterization of a growth hormone-releasing factor from a human pancreatic islet tumour. Nature. 1982;300:276-278. PMID 6292724
  3. Ranke MB, et al. Testing with growth hormone-releasing factor (GRF(1-29)NH2) and somatomedin C measurements for the evaluation of growth hormone deficiency. Eur J Pediatr. 1986;145:485-492. PMID 2880720
  4. 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;75:530-535. PMID 1379256
  5. Thorner M, et al. Once daily subcutaneous growth hormone-releasing hormone therapy accelerates growth in growth hormone-deficient children during the first year of therapy. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1996;81:1189-1196. PMID 8772599
  6. Vittone J, et al. Effects of single nightly injections of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH 1-29) in healthy elderly men. Metabolism. 1997;46:89-96. PMID 9005976
  7. 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;82:1472-1479. PMID 9141536
  8. Prakash A, Goa KL. Sermorelin: a review of its use in the diagnosis and treatment of children with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency. BioDrugs. 1999;12:139-157. PMID 18031173
  9. Walker RF. Sermorelin: a better approach to management of adult-onset growth hormone insufficiency? Clin Interv Aging. 2006;1:307-308. PMID 18046908
  10. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Determination that GEREF (sermorelin acetate) injection was not withdrawn from sale for reasons of safety or effectiveness. Federal Register. 2013;78:14095. 78 FR 14095
  11. Uçaktürk E, Nemutlu E. Analysis of growth hormone releasing hormone and its analogs in urine using nano liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole/orbitrap mass spectrometry. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2026;268:117207. PMID 41138283