Tesamorelin and ipamorelin: water was the ceiling
I ran the growth-hormone pair with strict timing, cut the dose when the water came, and stopped when it would not leave.
Goal: Better deep sleep, recovery and body composition through my own growth hormone.
The decision
Tesamorelin is one of the few here with real human trials and an FDA approval. I liked that it nudges your own growth hormone instead of replacing it. I paired it with ipamorelin in the same shot, on the assumption that a GHRH analog plus a ghrelin-receptor agonist gives a bigger growth-hormone pulse; that exact pair has not been tested head to head in people.
Timing was strict. Done eating by 6 pm, dose before bed around 8:30 to 9, so I went in two to three hours fasted. If I ate late, I skipped the night rather than waste the dose.
What happened
I started at 2 mg of tesamorelin. Within a few weeks I was holding water. On August 3 I cut tesamorelin to 1 mg and ipamorelin back to 100 mcg. It helped, but it did not clear.
On August 24 I paused both. The water retention was a little too robust.
Along the way I learned something I had believed was backwards. I had been told ipamorelin was the sleep half of the pair. When we actually pulled the research, ipamorelin has no human sleep data at all, and the human sleep evidence sits on the tesamorelin side of the family. I would not restart ipamorelin for sleep.
Timeline
- Jul 15, 2026
Started: tesamorelin 2 mg plus ipamorelin, pre-bed, fasted.
- Aug 3, 2026
Cut to tesamorelin 1 mg and ipamorelin 100 mcg for water retention.
- Aug 24, 2026
Both paused. Water would not clear.
- Oct 6, 2026
Still paused. No restart planned.
The graded evidence
One person's experience, from his own dosing log. It is not advice and it does not change any grade on this site. Talk to a licensed clinician before you act on anything here.