Ipamorelin
Also known as: Ipam
A selective ghrelin-receptor agonist that triggers a GH pulse without raising cortisol or prolactin — the property that made it the default GHRP and pushed the older, dirtier GHRPs to the margins.
Overview
Ipamorelin is a pentapeptide GHRP. The mechanism is the same as Hexarelin, GHRP-2, and GHRP-6 — bind the GHS-R1a, trigger a GH pulse — but Ipamorelin does it cleanly. The cortisol and prolactin elevation that complicate the older GHRPs are mostly absent here, which is why most clinicians and self-administering users settle on it. The pulse is smaller than Hexarelin's at equimolar dose, but the side-effect cleanness is what people pay for. Solo Ipamorelin works for sleep and recovery; the body-composition signal wakes up when you pair it with a GHRH like CJC-1295 or Sermorelin.[1]
Evidence quality
Original pharmacology work by Raun and colleagues (1998) established the GH-selectivity profile — the absence of cortisol and prolactin lift is what differentiates this peptide from the older GHRPs and the data on that point is reproducible. Long-term outcome trials in healthy adults are not the literature's strong suit. The pulse pharmacology is tight; the chronic body-recomp evidence is anecdotal-plus-mechanism rather than RCT-based.
Benefits & timeline
Benefits
- Clean GH pulse — no meaningful cortisol or prolactin lift
- Sleep deepens within the first week when dosed pre-bed
- Mild fat-loss and recovery benefit accumulates over months
- Tolerability is good enough to sustain long cycles without endocrine drift
Timeline
Week 1
Sleep deepens; dreams get more vivid. The earliest and most reliable signal.
Week 2–4
Recovery between sessions shortens.
Week 6–8
Subtle body-composition changes if you are pairing with a GHRH or pushing twice-daily dosing.
Week 12
Plateau. Receptor sensitivity is the limiting factor; cycle off.
Off-cycle
Four weeks off refreshes the GHS receptor. The next cycle responds as well as the first.
Dosage protocols
Advanced
300 mcg
thrice daily
Beginner
100 mcg
once nightly
Standard
200 mcg
twice daily
Titration & adjustment
Start at 100 mcg once nightly for 2 weeks. If well tolerated and you want a fuller GH pulse profile, escalate to 200 mcg twice daily for the rest of the cycle. Maximum 300 mcg three times daily. Cycle off for 4 weeks every 12 weeks.
Injection timing
Pre-bed for sleep benefits and to coincide with the body's natural overnight GH window. Add AM and post-workout doses if running a higher-dose protocol. Fasted state preferred but not mandatory.
Side effects & contraindications
- mildBrief facial flushing post-injection, lasting a few minutes.
- mildTingling, usually hands or face.
- mildMild hunger 30–60 minutes after the shot. Far less than GHRP-6 but still present — Ipamorelin is a ghrelin agonist after all.
Contraindications
- Active cancer or recent cancer history
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding
- Severe insulin resistance
- Caution with concurrent corticosteroids — opposing signals on the GH axis
Reconstitution & injection
A 5 mg vial mixed with 2 ml bacteriostatic water gives 2.5 mg/ml. A 200 mcg dose is 0.08 ml — 8 units on a U-100 insulin syringe. A 100 mcg starting dose is 4 units. Subcutaneous abdomen, on an empty stomach, with the 30-minute food-free window on either side. If running a GHRH stack, draw both into the same syringe.
Open calculator pre-filledStorage after reconstitution
Refrigerate at 2–8 °C after reconstitution. Do not freeze. Light-protect. Stable 28–30 days at fridge temperature in BAC water — one of the better-behaved ghrelin mimetics on the bench. Solution stays clear and colourless across the dosing month.
Cost & sourcing red flags
Typical price range: Research-grade ipamorelin runs $20–45 per 5 mg vial from US-domestic suppliers — among the cheapest of the GH secretagogues because it is a short pentapeptide with no complex modifications. Per-mg cost is roughly $4–9. Compounded sterile ipamorelin (usually as part of a CJC-1295 blend) costs $200–400/month via telehealth.
Red flags
- 5 mg vials priced under $10. The synthesis floor for a GMP-grade pentapeptide with this purity is around that number even at scale; bottom-bin vials are routinely underdosed or contain mislabelled GHRP-6 (which is cheaper to make and produces a stronger felt hunger signal that lay users mistake for 'working').
- Pre-mixed liquid ipamorelin in any container that is not refrigerated and shipped cold. Ipamorelin in solution degrades within 2–4 weeks at room temperature; vendors who ship ambient liquid are either selling fresh batches or knowingly shipping degraded product.
- No batch-specific COA showing the 711 Da mass peak. Ipamorelin is structurally close to several other small GHRPs (GHRP-2, GHRP-6, hexarelin) and mass spec is the only reliable distinguisher; a generic 'purity ≥99%' page is not a COA.
- Vendors recommending doses above 300 mcg per shot. The dose-response curves out around 200 mcg in healthy adults; higher doses do not raise GH further and are sometimes a sign the product is underdosed and the vendor is compensating with a bigger recommendation.
- Strong hunger spike disproportionate to the dose — this is a tell that the vial is actually GHRP-6, which has dramatically higher orexigenic activity than ipamorelin. Ipamorelin's hunger signal is mild; a 100 mcg shot that triggers ravenous hunger within 10 minutes is probably not ipamorelin.
Pricing rots fast and varies by region and supplier. We list no vendors.
Common mistakes
Running Ipamorelin solo and expecting body-recomp.
Better approach: Solo Ipamorelin is a sleep and recovery peptide. The body-composition signal arrives when you pair it with a GHRH (CJC-1295 or Sermorelin). If body-recomp is the goal, the stack is what you want, not the GHRP alone.
Dosing right before or right after a meal.
Better approach: Insulin and amino acids blunt the GH pulse the peptide is designed to trigger. Keep 30 minutes clear of food on either side. The night-time dose belongs after dinner, not with it.
Pushing past 300 mcg per pulse.
Better approach: The GHS receptor saturates well before 300 mcg. Higher doses do not produce a bigger pulse — they just use up more peptide and accelerate desensitisation. Add a second pulse window (AM) instead of escalating one.
Continuing past 12 weeks without an off-cycle.
Better approach: Receptor desensitisation is the rate-limiting step on chronic GHRP use. 12 on, 4 off keeps the next cycle as responsive as the first. The off-period is not optional — it is the maintenance schedule.
Real-world tips
- Pre-bed alone gets you 80% of what most people are looking for. Add AM dosing only if you have a specific reason.
- Track sleep depth (or just how you feel on waking) in week 1. It is the cleanest signal that the batch is good.
- If injecting fast produces uncomfortable flushing, slow the plunger over 5–10 seconds.
- Mix in the same syringe as CJC-1295 or Sermorelin if running a stack. The peptides are compatible.
- Refrigerate after reconstitution; 3–4 weeks at fridge temp is the practical stability window.
What users report
Aggregated from r/Peptides, r/PEDs, and biohacker forums. Not clinical data.
Onset: Users describe a deeper-sleep effect within 3–5 days of starting bedtime dosing; the body-composition or recovery shift, if it appears at all on solo ipamorelin, takes 6–10 weeks and is subtle.
Common reports
- Better sleep depth in the first week, particularly when the last shot lands 30–60 minutes before bed. Sleep trackers commonly show 15–30 extra minutes of deep sleep in the first month.
- Mild post-injection hunger 20–40 minutes in, far less than GHRP-2 or GHRP-6. Most users barely notice it, which is one of the reasons ipamorelin gets the 'clean' label on forums.
- No flush, no head pressure, no scalp tingle — the absence of these signs is itself the most-reported observation. New users frequently post 'I feel nothing, is it working?' threads.
- No carpal-tunnel symptoms, no finger puffiness, no joint aches even at 300 mcg three times daily. This is the major selling point versus exogenous HGH for users who tried both.
- Modest IGF-1 movement on bloodwork — typical reported lifts are 20–50 ng/mL over baseline on solo ipamorelin at 300 mcg twice daily, which is meaningful but well below stacked or HGH numbers.
Where reports diverge from theory: Ipamorelin's reputation as 'the safe GH peptide' is supported by its receptor selectivity (no cortisol or prolactin rise), but the felt-effect side has a persistent gap: a substantial fraction of forum posters describe solo ipamorelin as the GH peptide where they 'felt nothing' compared to CJC-1295 stacks or hexarelin. The mechanism predicts a real GH pulse, and bloodwork confirms it, but the subjective signal is muted enough that compliance drops fast on solo protocols. This is why nearly every long-term user pairs it with CJC-1295 — not because ipamorelin doesn't work, but because the felt effect alone is too thin to sustain a daily injection habit for most people.
When something else is the better tool
Hexarelin
Use instead when: You want a bigger single pulse and you are running a short cycle. Hexarelin produces more GH per dose but raises cortisol and prolactin and desensitises faster — the right tool for 4–6 week intensives, not long runs.
GHRP-2 or GHRP-6
Use instead when: Cost is the limiting factor or appetite stimulation is a feature, not a bug. GHRP-6 in particular is the GHRP for bulking-phase appetite support; Ipamorelin's mild appetite lift is the trade-off you accept for the clean cortisol/prolactin profile.
Sermorelin
Use instead when: You want a GHRH instead of a GHRP. Sermorelin works upstream — telling the pituitary to release more GH via the GHRH receptor. The cleanest protocol pairs the two: Ipamorelin (GHRP) plus Sermorelin or CJC-1295 (GHRH).
Based on 1 peer-reviewed study
- Best time to inject?
- Pre-bed for the sleep benefit and the overnight GH window. Add AM fasted or pre-workout if running twice-daily. The fasted state matters more than the time of day.
- Will it make me hungry?
- Mildly. The ghrelin-receptor activation produces some appetite signal 30–60 minutes after the shot, but it is much less than GHRP-6 or GHRP-2. Most users do not find it disruptive.
- Solo or stacked?
- Solo is fine for sleep and recovery. Stack with a GHRH (CJC-1295 or Sermorelin) when body composition is the goal — the synergy roughly doubles the GH pulse amplitude.
- How long can I run it?
- 12 weeks on, 4 weeks off is the standard. Receptor desensitisation is the limit; the off-period restores responsiveness.
- Why is this preferred over the older GHRPs?
- Selectivity. Ipamorelin triggers the GH pulse without the cortisol and prolactin lift that GHRP-6 and Hexarelin produce. For long cycles where endocrine cleanness matters, that is the deciding factor.
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