HGH Injections for Men

In adult men, HGH helps balance all other hormones in the body — so there isn’t an area of your health that it doesn’t touch.

A “miracle drug,” the “fountain of youth”—human growth hormone (HGH) has a strong reputation for solving pretty much every health concern a middle-aged man has. Rumor has it, HGH can help you look younger, build more muscle, burn fat, boost your libido — and science says most of these things are actually true.

But that doesn’t mean HGH is right for every guy. We did some digging to find out everything you need to know about the “healing hormone” and help you decide if you should talk to your doc about getting a ‘script.

What exactly is HGH?

Human growth hormone (HGH), often known as just growth hormone (GH), is a peptide hormone produced by the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. The name is on-point: In adolescence, it’s responsible for helping kids get taller. But GH is also a “master hormone,” according to experts. That means, even in adults, GH helps balance all other hormones — so there isn’t an area of your health it doesn’t touch.

A healthy supply of GH keeps you healthy psychologically — it maintains your sense of well-being, keeping you happy, engaged, and able to handle stress — and physically, keeping your heart healthy, your cholesterol levels down, inflammation down, and bones solid. It even boosts your body’s ability to heal faster.

But there’s one area in the master hormone that has gained particular fame among bodybuilding types: its ability to help maintain muscle mass, shed belly fat, synthesize amino acids, and metabolize fat and protein. GH stimulates the release of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), the main driver of tissue growth. Together, these help you build more muscle and burn more fat.

And by the same token, insufficient amounts of growth hormone have become a contending culprit behind delayed gains at the gym — and taking synthetic GH has been touted as an avenue to help guys get swole. But there are a few things you should know before you try it.

Do you have a deficiency?

Clinically, probably not. According to a study in Frontiers in Endocrinology, roughly 6,000 new cases of adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD) are diagnosed each year in the US. To put that in perspective, about 481,000 cases of low testosterone are diagnosed annually. Experts consider that a true growth hormone deficiency is uncommon, and it typically occurs only in patients who have had damage to the pituitary gland or to the area in the brain that controls the gland, such as from a traumatic brain injury.

However, your levels of growth hormone decline naturally, starting at around 25 years old and accelerating once you reach 35 when you enter a GH-deprived state called somatopause. Some studies say men lose 14 percent of their GH production per decade, others by up to 50 percent every seven years. According to a study in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, by the time you’re 65, you generally secreting less than one-third the amount of GH you did when you were 35.

Guys who live a healthy life with low stress, minimal alcohol, and a balanced diet can hold onto their levels a little longer, Doctors point out, but over the age of 40, it’s rare to see someone with levels over the 200 marker — which is why spending the same amount of time in the gym can deliver sub-par results at that decade in your life.

How do you find out if you’re deficient?

Unfortunately, the symptoms of low GH are pretty similar to a middle-aged guy feeling depressed and fighting against time’s effect on his body: physically, you’ll lose lean muscle mass, gain fat around the middle, have aching bones and joints, and feel a strong need to sleep during the day. Your hair will thin, and your skin will sag.

Psychologically, you’ll feel more irritable, less motivated, more inclined to avoid social situations, tenser, and more easily stressed. You might experience a lack of libido or a worse memory. In addition to these symptoms, any issues with heart disease or high cholesterol can also be a further red flag for deficiency.

Sound eerily familiar? Ask a doc to run a test. After all, GH deficiencies in adults have been linked with cardiovascular, neuromuscular, metabolic, and skeletal abnormalities, as well as earlier death, according to a study in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism — so it’s definitely worth checking out. But remember, it’s unlikely that you have a severe case — and there are plenty of other factors that can make you feel all-around crappy.

Because growth hormone has a very short half-life, you’ll want to test for other related issues too — potentially insulin tolerance, arginine levels, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and IGF-binding protein 3 (IGF-BP3). Ideally, doctors want a guy’s level to be around 300 at any age — that’s the healthy youthful level.

Do you have to be deficient to take a supplement?

The only way to obtain a safe supply of synthetic growth hormone is with a prescription from a doctor, and they’re not going to write you a ‘script unless your tested levels say you need it.

Yes, you can score the stuff on the black market without your doctor’s help. In fact, doctors say they’ve had patients admit to taking GH obtained illegally, typically online from places like China.

One really important note: Because GH is a peptide, it must be injected to have any effect. Any GH packaged in pills or creams is 100% scam. And we can all probably agree the risk of injecting yourself with a substance you bought online probably isn’t worth whatever potential gains you’re hoping for — so put the sketchy needle down, dude.

What are the benefits and risks of taking HGH?

FDA-approved synthetic growth hormone is identical to naturally-produced growth hormone. It behaves the same and is just as safe.

People with clinical deficiencies, in general, see great benefits from receiving supplementation. There’s a synergistic effect to getting your levels of the master hormone on track — you’ll see a benefit across so many hormones and therefore have a higher quality of life. That comes in the form of physical improvements (better muscle mass, less fat retention around the abdomen, healthier bone density) as well as psychological (less irritability, less social isolation, more motivation).

But can healthy people score these perks by loading up, too? That’s where it gets tricky.

For starters, there is slim-to-zero research on what happens when guys with already healthy levels start taking extra GH.

We do know that if you boost too much, you risk acromegaly — the clinical disorder of having too much growth hormone in the body. Acromegaly causes a thickening of the bones in the jaw, forehead, and hands — your hands start to look like lobster claws, and your forehead protrudes out like a caveman. This is sometimes seen in the bodybuilding community, and what has given GH a bad rap. It’s normally taken in large doses alongside anabolic steroids, among other things.

Taking normal levels — one, two, three units — you’ll only see the positives, and any minimal side effects, like swelling of the ankles, muscle aches, bone aches, can be mitigated by reducing your dosage.

As for the long-term health effects of just-above-healthy levels of GH, the science is sparse. What studies do exist pretty much contradict one another? Some say decreased GH levels are detrimental to longevity. Others say high levels are what shortens your lifespan.

And even though GH has a reputation for supercharging your gym gains, it may not actually be the muscle potion you imagine. Researchers conducted a meta-analysis on studies with non-deficient athletes, 85 percent of whom were male.

After receiving growth hormone injections for 20 days, the athletes gained almost five pounds of lean body mass. While that’s a good bit of muscle to pack on in just three weeks, it didn’t actually make the guys stronger or fitter. In fact, in two of the three studies, non-deficient men taking hormone replacements had higher lactate levels during exercise, suggesting taking the hormone unnecessarily could actually decrease their physical fitness.

Is it worth getting tested?

Sure, if you want to.

But there’s an even bigger roadblock if you qualify for low GH: Synthetic growth hormone is really, really expensive. It’s often not covered by insurance, so guys who have a ‘script for the stuff are shelling out at least $600 a month, and probably closer to $1,000. So yeah, it might deliver slight gains in muscle, reduction in fat, and a significant boost to your well-being (albeit along with potential long-term detriment) — but you’re going to be paying out the ass for the vial.