A sermorelin seller’s page uses a specific vocabulary. A buyer who does not already know it can misread a plain statement of fact as marketing, or the reverse. This glossary defines the terms that actually show up on those pages: mechanism words, regulatory words, format words, and words tied to price. Each entry stands on its own, so it holds up if it is quoted or linked out of context. For how those terms translate into what a page actually charges, see what a full year of sermorelin actually costs.
How sermorelin works in the body
GHRH (growth hormone-releasing hormone)
The signal your hypothalamus normally sends to the pituitary gland, triggering a pulse of growth hormone. Sermorelin is a GHRH analog — a lab-made version of a fragment of this signal — not growth hormone itself. A page that calls sermorelin “GHRH therapy” is describing the mechanism accurately. A page that calls it “growth hormone” is describing it incorrectly.
GH (growth hormone)
The hormone your pituitary gland releases in response to a GHRH signal. Sermorelin does not add GH to your body directly. It prompts the pituitary to release more of your own, which is a materially different intervention than injecting GH itself. Whether a page is clear about that distinction is one signal of how carefully it was written.
IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1)
A hormone your liver produces in response to a GH pulse. IGF-1 is the marker most often used in research to confirm a GHRH analog is doing something measurable, because GH itself is hard to track from a single blood draw. A page discussing lab monitoring may mention checking IGF-1 rather than GH directly, for that reason. See what IGF-1 testing actually shows for how that monitoring works in practice.
Pulsatile release
The natural pattern in which your body releases growth hormone: in bursts, not a steady drip, heaviest during sleep. A GHRH analog like sermorelin works with that pattern rather than overriding it, prompting a pulse rather than flooding the system continuously. This is the mechanistic reason sellers give for describing sermorelin as different from direct GH replacement. See why sermorelin is typically dosed at night for the reasoning behind nightly dosing specifically.
Regulatory status
Compounded
Prepared by a licensed pharmacy from raw ingredients, to an individual prescription. That is different from being manufactured as a single finished product that went through FDA’s approval process. Every sermorelin product sold today is compounded — no FDA-approved finished sermorelin product is currently on the market; see the full FDA-approval history for that record. “Compounded” is not automatically a red flag. It is a different regulatory category than “FDA-approved,” and a seller’s page should not blur the two.
503A
The section of federal law covering a licensed pharmacist compounding a drug for an individual, named patient. Drugs compounded under 503A are explicitly exempt from federal current good manufacturing practice rules, the standard applied to conventional drug manufacturing [1].
503B
The section of federal law covering outsourcing facilities. These compound in larger batches, often without an individual prescription in hand at the moment of production. Unlike 503A, 503B compounding is not exempt from current good manufacturing practice rules — a materially higher bar [1]. A seller naming which one supplies its product is disclosing something real.
Off-label
A use of a drug that falls outside what it was formally approved for by FDA, prescribed anyway on a physician’s clinical judgment. Sermorelin’s only approved product, Geref, is discontinued. Every current sermorelin product is compounded, not approved, so calling today’s use “off-label” in the traditional sense is itself imprecise — there is no current approved label to be off of. Sellers vary in whether they use the term carefully.
LegitScript
A private certification and monitoring service that reviews online pharmacies and healthcare merchants against its own standards [2]. A seller displaying a LegitScript badge is making a claim about that review — the badge is the seller’s own assertion. A reader outside the program cannot freely use LegitScript’s own tool to independently reproduce a specific claimed certification.
Formats and administration
Troche
A lozenge dissolved in the mouth rather than swallowed or injected — one of several non-injectable sermorelin formats some sellers offer, such as Joi and Blokes.
ODT (orally disintegrating tablet)
A tablet designed to dissolve without water, typically under the tongue, rather than being swallowed whole. Some sellers, such as ReadyRx, price their ODT and injection formats identically. Others price them apart. Neither pattern is the rule across this category, and each has to be checked seller by seller — see how oral and injection prices actually compare.
Sublingual
Placed under the tongue, where a medication absorbs through the tissue there rather than passing through the digestive tract. Sermorelin troches and some ODT products are both administered sublingually, including Eden’s tablet format.
Subcutaneous
Injected into the fatty layer just beneath the skin, rather than into muscle or a vein. This is the injection route sermorelin sellers use. It is a shallow injection, not a deep one. Sellers describing self-administration typically name the abdomen or thigh as the usual site — see the injection-technique breakdown for what that actually involves.
Mcg vs. mg
A microgram (mcg) is one-thousandth of a milligram (mg). This distinction matters more here than for most drugs, because sellers on this roster genuinely mix the two units — some state doses in whole milligrams, others in micrograms. A reader converting between a mg-labeled seller and a mcg-labeled one has to move the decimal three places correctly, or the comparison is off by a factor of a thousand.
Titration
Gradually adjusting a dose upward or downward, typically starting low and increasing over time based on response. A page describing a titration schedule, rather than one fixed dose for everyone, is describing an individualized approach rather than a flat protocol.
What ships with the medication
Lyophilized
Freeze-dried into a stable powder for storage and shipping, rather than sold as a ready-to-use liquid. A lyophilized sermorelin vial, such as the one MintRx ships, has to be mixed with a liquid before it can be injected. A “pre-mixed solution” listing is the opposite of this and needs no reconstitution step.
Bacteriostatic water
Sterile water containing a small amount of a preservative, used specifically to mix, or reconstitute, a lyophilized peptide vial. It is not the same as plain sterile water. A kit that omits it leaves a buyer without the one ingredient needed to actually use a lyophilized vial — see what bacteriostatic water is and why the ratio matters for the mixing detail itself.
Reconstitution
The act of mixing a lyophilized powder with bacteriostatic water to turn it into an injectable liquid. Whether a seller ships the supplies for this step, walks through it in instructions, or leaves it to the buyer to source separately is a practical fact — one of the least consistently disclosed facts on a seller’s page, as Invigor Medical’s listing illustrates by stating it plainly where many pages do not.
Buying terms
Auto-refill
A subscription arrangement in which a new supply ships and bills automatically on a set cadence, without the buyer placing a new order each time. On this roster, an auto-refill cadence is not always a calendar month. Some sellers bill every 28 days or every four weeks instead, which adds up to thirteen charges a year rather than twelve.
Prepay
Paying upfront for multiple months, or a multi-month kit, in a single charge — usually advertised at a lower effective monthly rate than paying one month at a time. Prepay is not guaranteed to be cheaper per year than staying flexible. On Bodybuilding Health+’s own published ladder, a three-month prepay plan works out to a higher effective monthly rate than paying month to month, for the same format — see how that plays out across more sellers before assuming a longer commitment saves money.