GHRP-2: effective at releasing growth hormone, and not selective about it
The compound ipamorelin was developed to replace. It releases growth hormone reliably and it also moves two other hormones, which is the whole reason the class kept iterating.
Regulatory status. Research compound. Studied in clinical trials for GHD. Not FDA approved for general use. That is the app’s own field, reproduced here rather than summarised. It means no regulator has reviewed a manufacturer’s evidence for identity, purity, potency or safety in people for this compound, so nothing below is a marketing claim about a product you can buy.
Purity, identity and concentration are therefore unverified by anyone but whoever made the vial. The storage rule in the fact box below is general practice for this formulation rather than a specification for a particular product: General handling practice for this formulation. Your supplier’s own insert or COA overrides anything here.
This page names no vendor, no clinic and no testing service, and there is no discount code anywhere on this site — the moment a page like this recommends where to buy, it stops being information.
- Also known as
- Pralmorelin, KP-102
- Class
- Peptide
- Regulatory status
- Research compound. Studied in clinical trials for GHD. Not FDA approved for general use.
- Modelled half-life
- 30 min
- Time to peak
- 15 min
- Formulation
- Aqueous (reconstituted powder)
- Before mixing
- Sealed powder tolerates room temperature in transit, but keep it refrigerated at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F) for anything beyond a few weeks, or frozen for months. Keep it dark — the carton it shipped in is doing a job.
- After mixing
- Once reconstituted with bacteriostatic water: refrigerate at 2–8 °C and use within about 28 days. The benzyl alcohol in bacteriostatic water is what buys that window — plain sterile water has no preservative, so a vial mixed with it should be treated as one sitting only. Kits are usually ten vials: only the one you mixed is on that 28-day clock — the sealed ones keep their own, much longer shelf life, so store them as powder, not as solution.
- What ruins it
- Do not freeze a reconstituted vial. Repeated freeze–thaw is one of the more reliable ways to degrade a peptide.
- Handling caveat
- General handling practice for this formulation. Your supplier’s own insert or COA overrides anything here.
Where it sits in the family
Established clinical use The growth hormone releasing peptides act at the ghrelin receptor, where they both stimulate GH release and reduce somatostatin tone. GHRP-6 came first and produced marked hunger. GHRP-2 is more potent for GH release with less appetite stimulation. Hexarelin is more potent still and desensitises fastest. Ipamorelin came last and was selected specifically for producing GH release with minimal effect on ACTH, cortisol and prolactin.
GHRP-2 sits in the middle of that progression, and its position is defined by what it does besides releasing growth hormone: cortisol and prolactin rise moderately at effective doses. Whether that matters depends on the person and the dose — it is not a dramatic effect — but it is the reason the app puts prolactin and cortisol on the monitoring panel here and not for ipamorelin.
It has a more serious clinical history than most peptides in this reference. It was studied as a diagnostic agent for growth hormone deficiency, which is a use that requires the GH response to be reliable and reproducible, and it is. What it never acquired was an approval for the purposes it is used for now.
Desensitisation is the practical limit
Off-label or community practice Continuous agonism at any receptor tends toward reduced response, and the ghrelin receptor is no exception. GHRP-2 is described as desensitising faster than ipamorelin, which is the reason the app’s dosing rows carry on-and-off framing rather than continuous use. This is a real pharmacological phenomenon rather than a superstition about cycling, though the specific intervals in circulation are convention rather than anything derived from a trial.
The pairing with a GHRH analogue applies here as it does across the class: two receptors, complementary actions on the same pulse, a combined effect on a GH pulse larger than either alone. That synergy is established in human physiology studies of the mechanism. The specific product combinations people use have not been through trials.
Fasted administration and a pre-sleep dose come from the same physiology as everywhere else in this class: insulin and glucose blunt GH release, and the largest natural pulse is nocturnal.
What to measure, and what nobody established
IGF-1 is the marker that tells you the axis moved — a random serum growth hormone reports where in a pulse the needle went and little else. The IGF-1 page covers why the reference interval is age-dependent. Prolactin and cortisol are on this compound’s panel specifically, and the prolactin page covers how easily that particular hormone is elevated by the draw itself, which matters when you are looking for a drug effect. Fasting glucose sits alongside, because raising growth hormone reduces insulin sensitivity.
Animal-only or theoretical What is unestablished is everything downstream. Amplifying GH pulses in a person with a normal axis is measurable; whether it changes body composition, recovery or sleep in a way that matters is not something the literature answers for any compound in this class. IGF-1 is a marker of exposure, not of benefit.
There is no approved product, so identity and purity rest with whoever made the vial, and this site names no vendor. Anything experienced while using it — and a rising fasting glucose in particular — belongs with a clinician who has the whole picture.
How long one dose lasts
pkCurve function.
The vertical axis is relative: the shape carries across people, the absolute
concentration does not.Try other intervals on the half-life and steady-state calculator, which runs the same function against whatever cadence you type.
The dosing rows the app records
Off-label or community practice Reproduced from the app’s reference so you can see what it holds, not as a recommendation. Which row applies to a particular person, if any, is a clinical decision this page does not make — and rows describing supraphysiological or post-cycle use are filtered out before this table is built, so what you see here is a subset.
| Label | Amount | Route and frequency | Duration recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 100-200mcg | SubQ 2-3x daily fasted | 3 months on / 1 month off |
| With CJC-1295 | 100mcg GHRP-2 + 100mcg CJC-1295 | SubQ 2x daily fasted | 3 months |
What the app monitors alongside it
The panel below is the app’s own monitoring note for GHRP-2, verbatim. The analytes in it that have a page here are linked; those pages cover what each one measures, which assay produced it and how to read a trend.
- Monitoring panel
- IGF-1 every 3 months, Prolactin, Cortisol if symptomatic, Fasting glucose.
Drawbacks and risks the app records
From the app’s own entry, and it is a fair self-assessment: every item is a comparison against the more selective compound that replaced it.
- Moderate cortisol and prolactin elevation unlike Ipamorelin
- Some hunger stimulation
- Faster desensitization than Ipamorelin
- Requires cycling
- Not FDA approved
- Less selective than Ipamorelin
Interaction rules that name GHRP-2
From the app’s interaction data, filtered so no rule naming a compound this site does not publish appears. Not exhaustive, and not a safety clearance: a combination that is not listed is one nobody has documented here, which is not the same as one that is fine. The combination checker has the rest.
GHRP Stacking Increases Cortisol and Prolactin
Stacking two GHRPs amplifies cortisol and prolactin elevation beyond what either compound causes alone. If dual-GHRP use is desired, use lowest effective doses and monitor prolactin.
What to watch: Prolactin, Cortisol, IGF-1. Consider Cabergoline if prolactin elevates.
Questions people actually ask
Why choose it over ipamorelin?
Greater potency for GH release, at the cost of selectivity. Whether that trade is worth making is not something a page can answer, and the monitoring differs between them precisely because the trade is real — cortisol and prolactin are on this panel and not on that one.
How much does it raise cortisol?
Moderately at effective doses, which is less than GHRP-6 or hexarelin and more than ipamorelin. It is a dose-related effect rather than a fixed one, and the app puts cortisol on the panel to be measured rather than assumed.
What does desensitisation feel like?
Usually nothing — it shows up as a diminishing IGF-1 response rather than as a symptom, which is an argument for measuring rather than judging by feel.
Is it the same as pralmorelin?
Yes. Pralmorelin is the international non-proprietary name for the same molecule, which is why it appears in the clinical literature under a name most vendors do not use.
Where the load-bearing numbers come from
Named rather than linked. Publisher URLs move, and a citation that resolves to a 404 two years from now is worse than one you can search for by name — every entry below is findable from the title and year alone.
- Selectivity across the GHRP family
- The growth hormone secretagogue characterisation literature of the 1990s
- Use as a diagnostic agent for GH deficiency
- Clinical studies of GHRP-2 as a provocative test of pituitary GH reserve
- Synergy with GHRH analogues
- Human physiology studies of combined GHRH and secretagogue administration
- Modelled half-life and time to peak
- app.html’s TL_PK entry
A compound whose response fades rather than announcing itself is one to track on a chart. TherapyLog keeps IGF-1 beside the dose.
Save this dose to your log