Sermorelin side effects

How to read this list

The data come from small studies in GH-deficient children and healthy older men, and rates exist for only a few effects. The longest adult treatment period in a trial was 16 weeks, and it used a related analog, not sermorelin itself.¹³ A chart review of 14 men on a sermorelin combination covered a mean of 134 days of treatment.¹⁴ Background on the compound is in What is Sermorelin?

There is no current label to quote. Drugs@FDA offers no Geref label, and DailyMed holds no sermorelin labels, so label rates, contraindications and warnings are not available.⁴⁵

Most commonly reported

• Brief facial flushing and injection-site pain: the most commonly reported adverse events with single IV doses and with repeated once-daily doses under the skin, according to a 1999 drug review.¹ The review abstract gives no rates.
• Mild injection-site irritation: 3 of 40 children (7.5%) given GHRH(1-29)-NH2 for 6 months in a randomized trial of 60 children.² No serious side effects were seen.²
• Nose symptoms with a nasal spray form: in a pilot study of 8 children, only 1 tolerated the spray well locally; most others had sneezing right after spraying, a runny nose and mild burning in the nose.¹⁵ Two children stopped treatment.¹⁵

Immune response

• Antibodies to GHRH: in the same 6-month trial, all 20 children on the higher dose and 19 of 20 on the lower dose formed GHRH antibodies.² They did not track with growth, no antibodies to GH appeared, and the GHRH antibodies had almost disappeared 9 months after stopping.²
• With the nasal form: antibodies turned positive in 3 of 8 children by 6 weeks.¹⁵

Hormone changes

• IGF-1: in older men, the higher tested dose raised IGF-1 along with GH.⁸ In GH-deficient children, IGF-1 rose at first and then fell back to about pretreatment values during 6 months of treatment.²
• Sex hormones: in a chart review of 14 men already on testosterone, a sermorelin, GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 combination brought no significant change in LH, FSH or estradiol.¹⁶ Testosterone rose, but every man was taking testosterone, so the cause is unclear.¹⁶
• Testosterone and phosphate: in the 14-day trial, older men started with lower testosterone and phosphate than young men. Phosphate rose during treatment; no testosterone change was reported.⁸

Reported in reviews, without rates

• Sermorelin specifically: beyond injection-site pain and flushing, a 2026 review lists nausea, dizziness, headache, rare allergic reactions and a slight, short-lived prolactin increase.³
• GH-axis peptides as a group: the same review's abstract reports prolactin and cortisol rises, appetite changes, blood sugar disturbance, fluid retention, muscle and joint aches, and injection-site reactions across this class.¹⁷ These are not broken out for sermorelin.

What short studies did not find

• Children, up to 1 year: in 110 GH-deficient children, fasting glucose did not change and IGF-1 was not overproduced; overall the treatment was well tolerated.¹²
• Older men, 14 days per dose: in 10 men, treatment did not affect fasting glucose, urinary C-peptide, blood pressure, or routine chemistry and blood counts.⁸
• Older men, 6 weeks: in 11 men aged 64 to 76, glucose, insulin and lipids did not change and no significant adverse effects were observed.¹⁸
• Related analog, 16 weeks: in 19 adults given [Nle27]GHRH(1-29)-NH2, the only adverse effect was a temporary rise in blood lipids, which resolved by the end of the study.¹³

Warnings

Long-term safety is unknown

No long-term safety data exist for sermorelin.³ A 2026 review notes a theoretical cancer concern because growth hormone and IGF-1 signal cells to grow, with no established clinical cancer signal.³

Product quality varies outside approved supply

• Because compounded drugs are not FDA-approved, FDA does not check their safety, effectiveness or quality before sale.¹⁹
• In 2016, Talon Compounding Pharmacy pulled every unexpired lot of its freeze-dried HCG and sermorelin because sterility could not be assured.⁶
• In 2022, Olympia Pharmacy recalled lots of compounded sermorelin acetate found to be out of specification.⁹ Its recall notice, posted by FDA, warns that injectables with more or less drug than labeled can lead to too much or too little being given.⁹
• Outside regulated supply, what a product contains, its dose and how it is combined are all uncertain, a 2026 review notes.¹⁷ A second 2026 review, in Sports Medicine, finds rigorous human safety data for unapproved peptides scarce and warns of potential for serious harm.²⁰
• In 2024, FDA treated an online seller's research-labeled sermorelin as an unapproved new drug, because its website showed the products were meant for people.⁷

Combinations

FDA places GHRP-2, GHRP-6 and Ipamorelin in its category of compounding substances that may present significant safety risks.¹¹ It cites immunogenicity concerns and, for ipamorelin, serious adverse events including death after IV use.¹¹ For CJC-1295, FDA has identified serious adverse events, including increased heart rate and a systemic vasodilatory reaction.¹¹ The sources reviewed here hold no safety data for these combinations with sermorelin, and rigorous human safety data for unapproved peptides are scarce in general.²⁰

Who the data cover

The studies enrolled GH-deficient children, healthy older men, men already on testosterone, and adults aged 55 to 71 given the related analog.^1281413 Women appear only in that analog trial, which included 10 of them.¹³ Safety in other groups was not studied in these sources.

Athletes

Sermorelin sits on WADA's 2026 Prohibited List under S2.2.4 and is banned for athletes at all times.²¹

Related pages

Study doses and why no human dose is established: Sermorelin dosage. What the studies found: Sermorelin benefits and uses. Lab handling of the vial: How to reconstitute Sermorelin. General precautions: Peptide safety basics. The research vial is at Buy Sermorelin.