Sermorelin used to come in one form: a vial for injection. On telehealth sites today it also comes as troches dissolved in the cheek, sublingual tablets and nasal sprays, sold as the needle-free version of the same drug. This page sets out what was ever measured when GHRH(1-29) — sermorelin's sequence — was given any way other than a syringe.
Doses for the injected form are on our sermorelin dosage page, and what injected sermorelin did in trials is on our sermorelin results page. How peptides in general fare by mouth and by nose is set out on our oral peptides and peptide nasal spray pages; this one is sermorelin only. Nothing here is a recommendation.
The approved route was injection
GEREF, the only sermorelin product FDA ever approved, was injected — a single intravenous dose of 1 microgram per kilogram as a test of the pituitary, and 30 micrograms per kilogram under the skin at bedtime as a treatment for children with growth hormone deficiency. Drugs@FDA lists both applications as discontinued (read via openFDA, 6 October 2026). No oral, sublingual, buccal or nasal sermorelin product has ever been approved, here or, as far as the published record shows, elsewhere. Where sermorelin sits among approved peptides is on our FDA-approved peptides census.
What is sold now
| Form | What the seller lists | Kind of source | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buccal "mini troche" | 600 micrograms, nightly, 5 of 7 nights (Strive Pharmacy, dated 2026-06-26) | Compounding pharmacy (tier 3) | 2026-10-06 |
| Nasal spray | 1,000 micrograms per mL, "1 spray nasally up to 3 times daily", 5 of 7 days (same page) | Compounding pharmacy (tier 3) | 2026-10-06 |
| Sublingual troche | "one 1,000mcg troche under the tongue at night", five nights a week (Alan Health) | Telehealth instructions (tier 4) | 2026-10-06 |
| Troche or sublingual tablet | "500-1000 mcg nightly"; the page itself states "Not FDA-approved" (GobyMeds) | Telehealth listing (tier 4) | 2026-10-06 |
Two things in that table need saying. The nasal spray is labelled per millilitre, and the volume of one spray is not stated, so the amount in a spray cannot be worked out from the page. And the troche doses, 500 to 1,000 micrograms, are two to five times the 200 to 300 micrograms the same industry lists for injections — consistent with sellers expecting much less to be absorbed, though none publishes a figure for how much.
The nose: four human studies
Every human study found of GHRH(1-29) given into the nose is below. Abstracts opened on 6 October 2026.
| Study | Who | What was given | What was found |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilton et al., Acta Paediatr Suppl 1993 (Kabi Pharmacia) | 30 healthy men, 19–43 | GHRH(1-29)-NH2 IV or intranasal, single doses | Nasal bioavailability "only 3-5%". About 50 micrograms/kg intranasally ≈ the GH response of 1 microgram/kg IV. Repeated nasal doses kept working over a day |
| Hümmelink et al., Acta Paediatr Suppl 1993 | 8 prepubertal children with GH deficiency | 50 micrograms/kg intranasally, 3 times daily, 6 months | GH peaks fell by week 6 and further by month 6; antibodies in 3 of 8 by week 6; growth rate rose briefly, then 6-month height velocity did not increase; sneezing, runny nose, mild burning in most; 2 stopped. Authors: "not suitable in its present form" |
| Perras et al., Psychoneuroendocrinology 1999 | 12 young and 11 older healthy men, crossover | 300 micrograms GHRH intranasally, 30 min before bed | More slow-wave and REM sleep in the second half of the night; lower cortisol early in sleep; and a reduced sleep-related rise in GH |
| Hallschmid et al., PLoS One 2011 | 12 healthy young men, crossover | 600 micrograms GHRH intranasally at 21:00 | GH release blunted within 3 hours; word-pair recall next morning about 12% lower than on placebo |
Read together, they say something the product pages do not. At body-weight doses large enough to matter in the 1993 work — 50 micrograms per kilogram is 3,500 micrograms for a 70 kg adult — nasal GHRH raised growth hormone, but poorly and, in children, less over time as antibodies appeared. At the 300 to 600 microgram fixed doses of the later studies, close to what a compounded spray might deliver, it lowered growth hormone. The 2011 authors' explanation is that intranasal GHRH reaches the brain and suppresses the body's own GHRH through a short feedback loop.
These were not sermorelin products and not compounded sprays. They are the whole human record for the route.
The mouth: no study
A PubMed search on 6 October 2026 for GHRH, sermorelin or growth hormone-releasing hormone with oral, sublingual or buccal administration returned 57 records. They are about oral ghrelin-receptor drugs such as hexarelin, GHRP-2 (including one 2001 study placing it in the mouth) and GHRP-6 — different molecules acting on a different receptor — or about oral glucose, arginine and other drugs given before a GHRH test. None is a human study of GHRH or sermorelin given by mouth, under the tongue or in the cheek.
What is known about peptides by mouth in general comes from the approved ones. Oral semaglutide's label puts its absorption at about 0.4% to 1% of the dose, and oral octreotide needs 20 mg to give the exposure of 0.1 mg injected; the figures and their labels are on our oral peptides page. A troche is held in the cheek rather than swallowed, which avoids stomach acid, but the mouth lining is also a barrier to a 29-amino-acid chain, and no seller cites a measurement of how much crosses it.
What this does not settle
- Whether any compounded sermorelin troche, tablet or spray delivers a measurable amount of sermorelin into the blood.
- Whether a compounded nasal spray raises or lowers growth hormone at the volumes sold.
- Whether antibodies form with long-term nasal use in adults, as they did in a third of the children in 1993.
- Whether any of these products contain the stated amount of sermorelin; compounded preparations are not reviewed by FDA for that.
What injected sermorelin's trials recorded as side effects is on our sermorelin side effects page. Anyone weighing a route should do so with the prescribing clinician.
Sources and dates
- Wilton P et al. Pharmacokinetics of GHRH(1-29)-NH2 and stimulation of GH secretion in healthy subjects after intravenous or intranasal administration. Acta Paediatr Suppl 1993;388:10–5. PMID 8329825. Read 2026-10-06.
- Hümmelink R et al. Intranasal administration of GHRH(1-29)-NH2 in children with GH deficiency. Acta Paediatr Suppl 1993;388:23–6. PMID 8329828. Read 2026-10-06.
- Perras B et al. Sleep and endocrine changes after intranasal administration of GHRH in young and aged humans. Psychoneuroendocrinology 1999;24(7):743–57. PMID 10451909. Read 2026-10-06.
- Hallschmid M et al. A role for central nervous GHRH signaling in the consolidation of declarative memories. PLoS One 2011;6(8):e23435. PMID 21850272. Read 2026-10-06.
- PubMed search, 2026-10-06: (GHRH OR sermorelin OR "growth hormone-releasing") AND (oral[ti] OR sublingual OR buccal) — 57 records, none a human study of oral, sublingual or buccal GHRH or sermorelin.
- Drugs@FDA via openFDA, GEREF NDA 019863 and NDA 020443, read 2026-10-06.
- Seller pages: Strive Pharmacy, Alan Health, GobyMeds, each read 2026-10-06 at the links above.