Search for sermorelin "before and after" and the first page is telehealth clinics, each with a week-by-week timeline: deeper sleep in weeks one to four, recovery by week eight, body composition from month two or three, skin and definition by month six. The timelines agree with one another closely. This page puts them next to what the human trials of sermorelin and its close analogues actually measured, and when.
What the doses and labels are is on our sermorelin dosage page, and what the trials and FDA's adverse-event database recorded as harms is on our sermorelin side effects page. Neither is restated here. Nothing on this page is a recommendation; anyone deciding about sermorelin should make that decision with a clinician.
What the drug was approved for
Sermorelin reached the market as GEREF, for children with growth hormone deficiency and as a diagnostic test of the pituitary. Drugs@FDA lists both applications as discontinued, with a Federal Register finding that they were not withdrawn for safety or effectiveness reasons. Its approved result, in other words, was height in children — not sleep, energy, skin or fat in adults. Where it sits among every other approved peptide is set out on our FDA-approved peptides census.
The trial record, as a timeline
These are the human studies of sermorelin (GHRH(1-29)) and its closest analogue that report outcomes over time. Every figure comes from the paper's own abstract, opened on 6 October 2026.
| Study | Who, how many | What was given | When things were measured | What changed | What did not |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thorner et al., JCEM 1996 (Geref International Study Group) | 110 prepubertal children with GH deficiency; 86 analysed | 30 micrograms/kg sermorelin nightly, subcutaneous | Every 3–6 months for 1 year | Height velocity 4.1 → 8.0 cm/yr at 6 months, 7.2 at 12 months; 74% "good response" at 6 months | No excess IGF-1, no change in fasting glucose |
| Corpas et al., JCEM 1992 | 10 men, mean age 68 | 0.5 mg and 1 mg twice daily, 14 days each | Day 14 of each dose | GH and IGF-1 rose significantly at 1 mg twice daily only | No change in fasting glucose or blood pressure |
| Vittone et al., Metabolism 1997 | 11 men aged 64–76 with low IGF-1 | 2 mg nightly, self-injected | Before and after 6 weeks | Night-time GH; 2 of 6 strength measures (upright row, shoulder press) and one endurance test | IGF-1, weight, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, DEXA fat and muscle, muscle histology, lipids |
| Khorram et al., JCEM 1997 — an analogue, [Nle27]GHRH(1-29) | 10 women, 9 men aged 55–71 | 10 micrograms/kg nightly for 16 weeks, after 4 weeks of placebo | Weeks 2, 4, 8, 12, 16 | IGF-1 up within 2 weeks, back toward baseline by week 16; skin thickness up (both sexes); lean mass, insulin sensitivity, well-being and libido up in men only | Body weight, blood pressure, other body composition, bone density, sleep quality |
Two of these are often quoted as if they were something else. The Khorram compound has a norleucine at position 27; it is a close analogue, not sermorelin itself. And the Thorner result is a children's growth result: the drug was doing in a growth-hormone-deficient child the job it was approved for, which says little about what it does in a healthy adult whose growth plates closed decades ago.
The clinic timeline, set beside it
The timeline on page one of Google is consistent across clinics. Three examples, read on 6 October 2026:
| Clinic page | Weeks 1–4 | Months 2–3 | Months 4–6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recovery Project (dated 2026-06-25) | "deeper, more restful sleep and a calmer, steadier mood" | "early body composition shifts, with a bit more lean tone and less bloat" | "improved muscle definition, skin quality, and overall vitality" |
| Gameday Men's Health (dated 2025-06-20) | "improved sleep quality" in weeks 1–2; recovery in weeks 3–4 | "leaner muscle tone, a reduction in belly fat, and firmer skin" | — |
| Perfect B (updated 2026-09-16) | sleep and energy | body composition | skin |
Perfect B is the exception worth naming: it cites Khorram 1997 and says the effect is "narrower and less durable than the marketing suggests". The others cite no trial for the weeks they print.
Put the two tables together and three gaps show:
- Sleep in weeks one to four. The only adult trial that asked about sleep quality — Khorram, by questionnaire across 16 weeks — found it "unaffected in both genders". The clinic pages present sleep as the first and most reliable change.
- Belly fat by month two or three. No adult trial reported a fall in fat. Vittone found DEXA fat unchanged at 6 weeks; Khorram found no body composition change beyond lean mass in men at 16 weeks.
- Durability. In Khorram, IGF-1 rose within 2 weeks and was drifting back toward baseline by week 16 while the drug was still being given. No trial ran longer than 16 weeks in adults.
Weight, specifically
"Sermorelin weight loss" is searched almost as often as "sermorelin results" itself, so it gets its own answer. Khorram reported that "blood pressure and body weight were unaffected". Vittone reported no change in "weight, body mass index, waist to hip ratio, DEXA measures of muscle and fat". Neither trial was designed or powered to detect a small change, and neither enrolled people trying to lose weight. The weight-loss peptides with trial evidence are a different class, the GLP-1 drugs, which are covered by GLP1 Ledger.
Men and women did not respond the same way
Khorram enrolled both sexes and reported them separately, which no other adult trial here did. Skin thickness rose in both. Lean mass, insulin sensitivity, general well-being and libido rose in men and not in women. The authors' own reading was that the analogue "induced anabolic effects favoring men more than women". With 10 women and 9 men, that difference is a signal from one small trial, not a settled finding.
The dose gap
The clinic doses are not the trial doses. Compounding pharmacies list 200 to 300 micrograms nightly for injections, and troche products 500 to 1,000 micrograms (sources and dates on our sermorelin dosage page and our page on sermorelin tablets and nasal spray). The one adult trial that moved IGF-1 used 1 mg twice a day, and a single 2 mg nightly dose did not move it in six weeks. A result reported by a clinic at a fraction of those doses is a result no trial has tested.
What would count as a "before and after"
None of the trials used photographs. They used CT, DEXA, calipers, blood tests and questionnaires, because a photograph does not control for lighting, posture, hydration, training, diet or the other things a person changes when starting a treatment. A before-and-after photo is a claim about one person, made by the seller. It cannot be checked, and it is not evidence of what the drug did.
The closest relative with a real body-composition record is tesamorelin, a 44-amino-acid GHRH analogue whose label reports CT-measured visceral fat in two placebo-controlled trials. That record is on our tesamorelin results page, and how long the approved peptides take to show their measured effects is on our timeline page.
What is not established
- Any effect of sermorelin in adults under 55, the population most clinics market to.
- Any effect at the 200 to 1,000 microgram doses clinics state.
- Any effect lasting beyond 16 weeks, or what happens after stopping.
- Any effect on sleep quality, mood, recovery or facial skin measured in a controlled trial of sermorelin injections.
- Whether compounded sermorelin matches the identity and potency of the discontinued GEREF.
The comparison with ipamorelin, which works through a different receptor, is on our ipamorelin vs sermorelin page. Peptide Lexicon's sermorelin entry explains the molecule for beginners.
Sources and dates
- 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(3):1189–96. PMID 8772599. Abstract read 2026-10-06.
- Corpas E et al. GHRH-(1-29) twice daily reverses the decreased GH and IGF-I levels in old men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1992;75(2):530–5. PMID 1379256. Read 2026-10-06.
- Vittone J et al. Effects of single nightly injections of GHRH 1-29 in healthy elderly men. Metabolism 1997;46(1):89–96. PMID 9005976. Read 2026-10-06.
- Khorram O, Laughlin GA, Yen SS. Endocrine and metabolic effects of long-term administration of [Nle27]GHRH-(1-29)-NH2 in age-advanced men and women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1997;82(5):1472–9. PMID 9141536. Read 2026-10-06.
- Clinic pages quoted: Recovery Project, Gameday Men's Health, Perfect B — each read 2026-10-06 at the links above. Kind of source: clinic (tier 4).
- Drugs@FDA, GEREF applications NDA 019863 and NDA 020443, via openFDA (data updated 2026-10-02), read 2026-10-06.