If you're looking into growth-hormone peptides, sermorelin and ipamorelin are the two names you'll hit first, and they're often pitched as interchangeable. They're not. Here's the honest comparison.
Two different mechanisms
Sermorelin is a synthetic fragment of growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH); it's described as prompting the pituitary to release more of the body's own growth hormone. Ipamorelin works through a different pathway, as a growth-hormone secretagogue that mimics ghrelin's signaling. Both are framed as nudging your own GH rather than replacing it, through different doors.
The regulatory difference that matters
Sermorelin has an unusual edge: it was once FDA-approved (as Geref) before being discontinued for commercial reasons, which gives it firmer footing in compounding than peptides that were never approved. Ipamorelin has no such history. Neither is an FDA-approved finished product today.
We don't publish doses, schedules, or administration instructions. These compounds aren't FDA-approved, and turning early research into a self-use guide would misrepresent the evidence and the risk. Whether anything is appropriate is a decision for a licensed provider.
Bottom line
Same goal, different mechanisms and different histories. See our Sermorelin article and Ipamorelin guide, and let a licensed provider weigh which, if either, fits.