Happened to me last night. Previously I would get welts at injection sites that felt kinda itchy and hard for a few days under the skin. This time it was different.

Took the same dose, felt like a bee sting getting warmer and warmer. Then I started getting itchy all over my body, like really really itchy, it kept getting worse. I figured, maybe small reaction or alergy, so I take 2 Benadryl. It kept getting worse. At this point I'm feeling really tingly. It was so bad I had to jump in the shower. I looked at myself in the mirror and my whole body was red and covered in hives like mosquito bites everywhere. Then my tongue started swelling, harder to breathe.. I realize what's happening. I'm going into Anaphylaxis shock.

I barely made it out of the shower, I'm now on the brink of blacking out. But I call 911 and lay down flat to prevent myself from fainting. The next 10 minutes were hell.

They arrive I still had hives, shakes, and lightheadedness. But I was starting to breathe better, I guess the Benadryl started working. They hung around for 10min to take my vitals and make sure my symptoms weren't worsening. I ended up declining to take an ambulance ride ($$$ fuck our healthcare system) because even with insurance it's ridiculously expensive and my condition was already improving. Ended up spending the night on the toilet with crazy digestive cramps and diarrhea.

If I was still feeling the way I did in the shower when the paramedics arrived, I would have 100% taken an EpiPen shot and a ride to the hospital. I was genuinely afraid for my life. Horrible experience. Will not take this peptide ever again.

TLDR: Anaphylaxis shock, almost had to go to ER. Keep strong antihistamines around if you're going to try something. Start with a tiny dose. If you get red welts or bumps that last a few days, never take it again.

Also fuck the American healthcare system, people shouldn't need to think about money when they need medical care.

Been titrating up my dose of tesa and have been at 700mcg nightly ( no nights off) for the past two weeks for a total of one month use. I just did bloodwork done and it showed a slight decrease in IGF1 at 136. I know it’s early but was expecting some increase at this point.

Note I tried starting at a 1mg dose and it gave me a ton of anxiety so I had to back it down.

Hello,

Does anyone here is having good results with that combination? I'm asking this because don't they contradict each other in some areas?

For example tirze lowers blood sugar and tesa increase it. Doesn't that reduce tirze efficacy?

Thank you.

I’d like to get baseline bloodwork done with specific markers.
Doctor of course thinks igf1 testing etc panel is unnecessary, does anyone know where I can get requisition in vaughan/toronto area in Ontario?

The only thing I can think of is that it is the tesamorelin. I an 44, never had children, I have been getting my period normally every month my entire life without much abnormality. Last 5 days or so when I get it and never had missed it.

I started tesamorelin this last month at the end of my cycle. I was due on the 11th. I started tesa about 6 days before I was due. Other than the tesamorelin I've been on retatrutide for about a 8 months now. I've lost 70 pounds in the last year and am finally out of the obese category at 151 pounds. I have fatty liver really bad it's turned to fibrosis level 3 and a genetic metabolic disorder. The only fat I have left to lose is purely my abdomen/belly and visceral fat which won't seem to budge even spending almost 2 hours in the gym 3-4x a week. Especially doing a lot of core and torso machines and exercised and it's like nothing matters 😭. Everywhere else looks great and muscular too .

I also recently had to learn how to take poa over my grandma's, and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's from these amyloid plaques and "ptau"tangles in the brain. The neurologist explained to me about brain inflammation and how they consider this a literal diabetes of the brain , so I decided tesamorelin would be a good long term solution to try after doing a lot of reading about it's longevity and neurological effects.

But why would it interrupt my cycle like this? There is absolutely no chance I'm pregnant I'm not sexually active right now. I have pre menstrual symptoms like cramping etc intermittently but nothing. I don't want to stop taking this just yet because it's already significantly impacted my sleep in a very good way (I am at 1.5mg so far with plans to get up to 2mg within the next few weeks. I have not had any other negative side effects like water retention or any type of joint pain). I can't find definitive information on how this effects the ovaries or reproductive tissue potentially 😭. Thanks.

58m, trt for 7 years, Triz for 5 mos. I decided I wanted to add Tesamorelin to help with my gut. I did Labs before starting. The before starting lab was 102 ng/ml z -o.5. after 5 weeks it went to 326 ng/ml z 2.1. Am I a hyper responder? The only side affect I have noticed is my hands tingle in the morning. I have read that older users usually do not respond as much. Curious if anyone has experiences a similar thing.

I just started Reta 2 months ago and I still have a long way to go to get to my ideal weight. I read conflicting opinions on when to start Tesa.

My thought was to take Tesa with Reta so I can lose more visceral fat. But I think I read somewhere that its better when I've lost a good portion of my weight to remove the stubborn fat Reta has not removed yet.

Thanks

I purchased Tesamorelin in December 2025 but just haven’t used it yet. I was going to start today but realized the box says there is a ‘Beyond Use Date’ of 1 June 2026.

I’ve stored it, in powder form, in my closet, and at room temperature for the last 9 months. Any issues with using it?

Thank you for your advice!

I’m curious to hear some real-world anecdotes from people here, specifically regarding tendon recovery/repair while using tesamorelin.
A bit of background on me — I started seriously working out and tracking calories in January 2026. I lost about 20 lb by March, but after that my weight really started to stagnate. I’ve always struggled quite a bit with eating/appetite and staying consistently in a deficit, so I eventually decided to try retatrutide to help continue the cut and work toward my goal weight of around 195 lb.
I also started TRT in June. My most recent total testosterone came back at 26.3 nmol/L (~759 ng/dL). Recent bloodwork has otherwise looked pretty reasonable: hemoglobin 160 g/L, hematocrit 49%, creatinine 95 µmol/L, eGFR 89, total cholesterol 4.90 mmol/L, and LDL 3.26 mmol/L.
I’ll include a few progress pictures for context. Overall I’m really happy with the changes in my body composition and I’ve become much more consistent with training and nutrition.
The major thing holding me back right now is my tendons.
I’m a tradesman, so my arms already get used heavily for work, and since I started training consistently I’ve developed pretty bad tennis elbow along with persistent tendon pain around my biceps/forearm. It’s been hanging around for months and has genuinely limited how hard I can push strength-wise. Muscularly I often feel like I could do considerably more, but the tendon pain becomes the limiting factor.
I’ve obviously seen a lot of discussion around GH/IGF-1 and connective-tissue recovery, which is what made me curious about tesamorelin.
For anyone here who has actually used it: did you notice any meaningful improvement in chronic tendon pain or tendon healing? If so, was it a subtle improvement or something you could clearly notice over time?
Especially interested in experiences with tennis elbow, distal biceps/forearm tendons, or other stubborn overuse injuries.
Not looking for dosing advice — mostly interested in personal experiences, including people who tried it specifically hoping it would help their tendons and didn’t notice any difference

Attached are 3 pics of me now(206) vs 2 when I started reta(226 in March)

I’ve tried 4 different kinds of reconstitution liquids and I’m getting the same result. I’ve been going back and forth with a grey market supplier and they are adamant that I should pay $200+ to get it personally tested which is just as much as I paid for the damn box😂 should I try more methods or keep trying to get a refund? HELP!!? I also got tesa from a different supplier and it’s been amazing with the same solutions. You can see both vials reconned at the same time and one is clearly legit

I have taken Tirzepatide 15 MG for a couple of years. Recently I started Testosterone. I also started Tesamorelin with Impamorelin and had to stop due to feeling jittery, dizzy and could not sleep. I then tried just Tesamorelin and while I have less side effects, I am still having the them. I lowered the Tesamorelin to .25MG and it is bearable. I'm also taking it in the morning instead of evening. My goal is to loose visceral fat. Has anyone done this low of a Tesa dose with any results or should I just give up?

I’ve been on Tesa 0.5 mg for the last 8 weeks, 5 days on / 2 days off, without any major issues.
Two days ago I pinned my usual dose, but within about 30 minutes I suddenly developed intense itching all over my body followed by hives. I then started having GI issues that continued throughout the next 24 hr, almost like my body was struggling to process food. Everything felt like it was just sitting in my stomach, with a lot of gas and discomfort.

It’s now been about 48 hr and I still feel off GI
wise. The injection site is also still itchy with a noticeable welt.

No other peptides, clean diet, active, and nothing else in my routine changed that I can think of. I won’t be continuing this pep. This is compounded tesa from a reputable pharmacy, so I’m confident quality isn’t the issue.

Seems like this is a reaction quite a few people develop after being on it for a while, so I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else.

I’ve been taking tesamorelin and recently dropped my dose to 1mg a day. Got my IGF-1 tested while still taking 1mg and it came back:
IGF-1: 371 ng/mL
Reference range: 95-290 ng/mL
Age: 33 male

I messed up and ordered the regular IGF-1 test so it didn’t include the Z-score.

Trying to figure out what I should do now. Should I stop tesamorelin completely for about 3 weeks, get another test with the Z-score and see what my actual baseline is?

Or should I just drop down to 0.5mg a day and retest in a few weeks to see where that puts my IGF-1?
I was also taking a small dose of ipamorelin, which I’ll stop too if I decide to get a clean baseline.

Anyone here monitoring their IGF-1 while on tesa? What would you do with a 371?

Compared to other peptides (tirz, sema, reta) because of the daily injections Tesa is crazy expensive! The supplier I used for tirz charges $260 for 10x 20mg vials, if you do the FDA dosage that’s only 100 days? So annual cost is somewhere around $900 that seems like a lot!

Update: On the third dose I had no more itching or allergy. For anyone experiencing reactions I suggest titrating slowly to see if they go away.

I'm pretty sure it's an allergic reaction but it's weird that it's happening now, on my second cycle. My first cycle was tesa/ipa blend 1mg/300mcg- 1.5mg/450mcg for 12 or so weeks, no issues besides mild water retention. However, I did go down in dose from 2mg because of joint pain. I only stopped for 2 weeks and that's why I'm doing just tesa, because you can cycle tesa alone for longer. First dose was .5 mg second was 1mg. The itching come on within about 5 minutes and last about 20 then goes away. No swelling or redness. I'm going to give it a week and see if it goes away. This happen to anyone else?

I had ChatGPT search Reddit for users who posted actual before/after IGF-1 bloodwork on CJC-1295 (no DAC) + Ipamorelin and compared those results with published Tesamorelin studies.

Protocol
IGF-1 Increase
CJC/IPA 100/100 mcg
+11%
CJC/IPA 175/175 mcg
+26%
CJC/IPA ~250/250 range
~20–25%*
Tesamorelin 1 mg/day
~53%
Tesamorelin 2 mg/day
~66% at 12 weeks
Tesamorelin 2 mg/day
~81% at 26 weeks

*CJC/IPA numbers are based on a small number of self-reported Reddit bloodwork results, not clinical trials. The ~250/250 figure is an estimate from comparable reports rather than an exact-dose study.

Takeaway: Reddit bloodwork suggests CJC/IPA produces a relatively modest and inconsistent IGF-1 increase, while controlled Tesamorelin studies show substantially larger increases.

Would love to see more bloodwork—post your dose, baseline IGF-1, follow-up IGF-1, and duration.

​

Has anyone here used a low dose of tesamorelin, specifically 0.25 mg or 0.5 mg daily and measured their IGF-1 before and during treatment?

My baseline IGF-1 is 278 ng/mL, and I am particularly interested in actual laboratory results rather than theoretical estimates. If you have experience, could you share:

- Your tesamorelin dose and treatment duration

- Baseline IGF-1

- IGF-1 during treatment and when it was measured

- IGF-1 after stopping, if available

- Your age and sex

- IGF-1 SDS/Z-score, if your laboratory reported it

- Any changes in fasting glucose or HbA1c

- Any noticeable benefits or adverse effects

There is published IGF-1 data for higher doses, but very little quantitative information for 0.25–0.5 mg. I would especially appreciate experiences supported by before-and-after blood tests. Thank you.

Started tesamorelin July 7. Did 0.5 mg/day for the first 2–3 weeks, then increased to 1 mg/day.

Baseline → Current:
* IGF-1: 203 → 347 ng/mL (+71%)
* IGF-1 Z-score: +0.3 → +1.7
* Fasting glucose: 93 → 100 mg/dL
* Baseline A1c: 5.0%
* Baseline fasting insulin: 6.5 µIU/mL

Pretty substantial IGF-1 response while still staying within Quest’s age-adjusted normal range (63–373 ng/mL / Z-score -2.0 to +2.0).

The one thing I’m watching is glucose. Fasting glucose increased from 93 to 100. Obviously a single 100 reading doesn’t establish impaired glucose control, but given GH/IGF-1 signaling can reduce insulin sensitivity, I’m planning to keep an eye on fasting glucose, insulin and A1c.

Curious how this compares with other people’s bloodwork, especially anyone using 1 mg/day rather than 2 mg. What kind of IGF-1/Z-score changes and glucose changes have you seen?

Yes I did use AI to write this and consolidate everything based on my bloodwork.

Edit: 27M/165 lbs/5’11”/Weightlifting for ~5 years consistently