The One With The Cortisol Problem

Hexarelin

Also known as Examorelin

At a glance

What it is: The third GHRP, and the one that also raises cortisol and prolactin.

Evidence: Small human studiesHow the tiers workHexarelin has a properly conducted human dose-response study: Massoud, Hindmarsh and Brook, JCEM December 1996, PMID 8954038, in healthy adult men by the intravenous route. Why this tier

Half-life: Not established in available literature
Routes: Intravenous, Subcutaneous, Intranasal, Oral
Category: Growth hormone
FDA: Not nominated; As of 3 August 2026. What that means
WADA: Prohibited (S2.2.4)
Amino acids: 6

Putting Hexarelin on a schedule, with the vial it comes from and a log of each dose, happens in the app: Claritide for iPhone.

Evidence

Why this tier

Hexarelin has a properly conducted human dose-response study: Massoud, Hindmarsh and Brook, JCEM December 1996, PMID 8954038, in healthy adult men by the intravenous route. It gives real numbers for growth hormone, prolactin and cortisol at each dose, which is more than most of this family offers. What does not exist is a controlled trial establishing a protocol that balances sustained growth hormone stimulation against the desensitisation that sets in within minutes at the receptor level. That sentence is the honest core of this record.

Overview

What it is

Hexarelin is a growth hormone secretagogue in the same family as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6. It has a properly conducted human dose-response study behind it, which is more than most of this family can say, and that study is also what indicts it: near-maximal growth hormone release arrives around 1 mcg/kg intravenously, and pushing past that buys little extra GH while adding cortisol and prolactin.

Mechanism

How it works

Hexarelin is a synthetic hexapeptide agonist at GHS-R1a, the ghrelin receptor that GHRP-2, GHRP-6 and ipamorelin also act on. Activating it triggers growth hormone release from the pituitary and amplifies the response to growth hormone releasing hormone, which is why hexarelin combined with GHRH is synergistic rather than merely additive. The problem is selectivity. GHS-R1a activation by hexarelin also drives prolactin and adrenocorticotropic hormone, and therefore cortisol, more strongly than the more selective members of the family do. There is also a well-documented desensitisation issue: in vitro work shows marked attenuation of the calcium response within two to five minutes of a first dose at the receptor’s second-messenger level.

Dosing

Commonly researched ranges

These are figures reported in published literature and practitioner protocols: a commonly researched range, not a recommendation. Claritide does not tell you what to take.

Community subcutaneous100–200 mcg
One to three times daily
The unusual thing about hexarelin is that this community band and the trial band nearly agree. Subcutaneous studies used 1.5–3 mcg/kg, which is roughly 105–255 mcg in a 70–85 kg adult, with the growth hormone response near-maximal at about 2 mcg/kg. That convergence is not true of CJC-1295 or ipamorelin, where the literature doses are an order of magnitude away from what people inject.
Dose-response study (intravenous, healthy men)1 mcg/kg
× body weight in kg
Single intravenous dose
Massoud, Hindmarsh and Brook, JCEM December 1996 (PMID 8954038). Growth hormone plateaued at 140 mU/L with an ED50 of 0.48 ± 0.02 mcg/kg. Prolactin rose to 180% of baseline at 1.0 mcg/kg with an ED50 of 0.39 mcg/kg, and cortisol stepped up about 40% at 0.5 mcg/kg.

Phase	Amount	Frequency	Timing	Note
Community subcutaneous	100–200 mcg	One to three times daily	Not established in available literature	The unusual thing about hexarelin is that this community band and the trial band nearly agree. Subcutaneous studies used 1.5–3 mcg/kg, which is roughly 105–255 mcg in a 70–85 kg adult, with the growth hormone response near-maximal at about 2 mcg/kg. That convergence is not true of CJC-1295 or ipamorelin, where the literature doses are an order of magnitude away from what people inject.
Dose-response study (intravenous, healthy men)	1 mcg/kg× body weight in kg	Single intravenous dose	Not established in available literature	Massoud, Hindmarsh and Brook, JCEM December 1996 (PMID 8954038). Growth hormone plateaued at 140 mU/L with an ED50 of 0.48 ± 0.02 mcg/kg. Prolactin rose to 180% of baseline at 1.0 mcg/kg with an ED50 of 0.39 mcg/kg, and cortisol stepped up about 40% at 0.5 mcg/kg.

Cycle guidance: No controlled trial has established a protocol that balances sustained growth hormone stimulation against desensitisation. A figure of 1.5 mcg/kg subcutaneously twice daily for 16 weeks with cortisol returning to normal between doses circulates in vendor synthesis; it is unsourced and partial, and we do not publish it as a schedule.
Goals: Muscle, Recovery

Legal standing

Where this sits with the FDA

Dated, sourced, and separate from whether it works. Removal from a warning list is not permission to compound.

Not nominatedas of 3 August 2026 · US

Hexarelin does not appear on FDA’s Category 1, Category 2 or 503A bulks lists as of August 2026. Absence from those lists is not permission: it means no nomination has been assessed either way.

Primary source

Sport

WADA status

The 2026 Prohibited List entered force on 1 January 2026.

Prohibited (S2.2.4)

Named on the 2026 List under S2.2.4, growth hormone secretagogues and GHRPs, alongside GHRP-1 through GHRP-6. Prohibited at all times.

Reconstitution

Mixing recipes our sources document

Concentration (mg/mL) = vial mg ÷ diluent mL. On a U-100 barrel, 1 unit = 0.01 mL.

Not established in available literature. Use the calculator with the figures printed on your own vial.
Open the calculator

Expectations

Week by week

What our material describes people reporting. Individual responses vary widely.

Not established in available literature.

Tolerability

Side effects

Grouped by how often our sources report them. Percentages appear only where a published trial figure exists.

Common

Prolactin elevationA plateau of 180% above baseline at 1.0 mcg/kg intravenously, with an ED50 of 0.39 mcg/kg, meaning prolactin starts moving at a lower dose than growth hormone does.
Cortisol elevationA step increase of about 40% at 0.5 mcg/kg. Cortisol is the reason this is the least attractive member of the family for repeated use.
Receptor desensitisationIn vitro work shows marked desensitisation of the calcium response within two to five minutes of the first dose at the GHS-R1a second-messenger level. This is secondary-tier evidence but it is mechanistically consistent with everything else known about the receptor.

Safety

Contraindications and interactions

Do not use if

Any condition where raised cortisol matters: hexarelin raises it measurably at doses below its own growth hormone plateau
Do not combine with other growth hormone secretagogues. GHRP-2, GHRP-6, ipamorelin and hexarelin all act on the same receptor, and stacking them is duplication rather than synergy

Interactions

Other GHS-R1a agonists (GHRP-2, GHRP-6, ipamorelin, MK-677)caution
The same receptor, four ways. Combining them adds side effects and desensitisation rather than growth hormone.
GHRH analogues (sermorelin, CJC-1295, tesamorelin)monitor
Genuinely synergistic: the 1996 study found the combination with GHRH(1-29)-NH2 at 1.0 mcg/kg produced a synergistic growth hormone response. That is the same mechanism behind the established GHRH plus GHRP pairings, and it amplifies the cortisol and prolactin effects too.

Absence from this list does NOT mean safety. It means lack of research.

Handling

Storage and cost

Storage: Our sources publish no vial and diluent pairing or beyond-use window for hexarelin. The published human work is intravenous administration in a research setting.
Cost: Not established in available literature

Combinations

Stacks with

Only pairings our own material actually documents. Stacking is the least evidence-based part of this field.

GHRP-2The Selective GHRP GHRP-6The Hungry One IpamorelinThe Clean Pulse

Deep dive

Hexarelin in full

Why it earns a record

We already carry GHRP-2 and GHRP-6. Hexarelin is the third member of that family and the one with the worst off-target profile, which makes it the best teaching record in the library for a specific idea: same receptor, different mess.

Four compounds in this library act on GHS-R1a, the ghrelin receptor. Ipamorelin is the selective one. GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 sit in between. Hexarelin is the one that drags cortisol and prolactin along with the growth hormone, and it does so at doses below its own growth hormone ceiling.

The study, with numbers

Massoud, Hindmarsh and Brook, "Hexarelin-induced growth hormone, cortisol, and prolactin release: a dose-response study", published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in December 1996, PMID 8954038. Intravenous administration, doses from zero to 1.0 mcg/kg, in healthy adult males.

Growth hormone: plateau at 140 mU/L, ED50 0.48 ± 0.02 mcg/kg
Prolactin: plateau at 180% above baseline at 1.0 mcg/kg, ED50 0.39 mcg/kg
Cortisol: step increase of about 40% at 0.5 mcg/kg

Read the ED50 values against each other. Prolactin's half-maximal dose (0.39) is lower than growth hormone's (0.48). The unwanted effect starts moving before the wanted one does.

Combined with GHRH(1-29)-NH2 at 1.0 mcg/kg, the growth hormone effect was synergistic, mechanistically the same logic as the established GHRH plus GHRP pairings elsewhere in this library, and it amplifies the cortisol and prolactin arms too.

The practical read

Near-maximal growth hormone arrives at roughly 1 mcg/kg intravenously. Going above that buys very little extra growth hormone and more cortisol and prolactin. That is a clean dose-response argument for a ceiling, and it comes from a real study rather than from convention.

Desensitisation

A second 1996 paper (PMID 8921821) used intranasal and oral hexarelin, so those routes have been tried. More importantly, in vitro work shows marked desensitisation of the calcium response within two to five minutes of the first dose, at the level of the receptor's second messenger. That is fast.

A chronic-use figure circulates: 1.5 mcg/kg subcutaneously twice daily for 16 weeks, with cortisol returning to normal between doses. It comes from vendor synthesis, it is partial, and we do not publish it as a schedule.

The honest core of this record is one sentence: no controlled trial has established a protocol that balances sustained growth hormone stimulation against desensitisation. Everything circulating about how to run hexarelin is filling that gap with confidence rather than data.

For athletes

Hexarelin is named on the 2026 WADA Prohibited List under S2.2.4, alongside GHRP-1 through GHRP-6. Prohibited at all times.

References

Sources

1
Massoud, Hindmarsh, Brook, 1996 · Hexarelin-induced growth hormone, cortisol, and prolactin release: a dose-response study, JCEM
PMID 8954038 Source
2
Second 1996 study using intranasal and oral hexarelin
PMID 8921821
3
Ghigo et al., 1994 · subcutaneous hexarelin dose-response, 1.5–3 mcg/kg (dose review, 2026-08-17)
PMID 8126144 Source
4
Imbimbo et al., 1994 · hexarelin pharmacokinetics and GH response by route (dose review, 2026-08-17)
PMID 7957536 Source
5
The Peptide Catalog · hexarelin dosing guide, the 100–200 mcg community band (vendor tier, dose review 2026-08-17)
Source

Every record in this library is free to read, and it stays free. Your own schedule, vials and log live in the app: Claritide for iPhone.