Best Peptides for Fertility & Reproductive Health

Also: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, Chorionic Gonadotropin, hCG

HCG is a hormone produced in pregnancy that happens to be an almost perfect mimic of luteinizing hormone. That single fact is why it has two completely unrelated uses: it is an approved fertility medicine, and it is the standard tool for keeping the testicles working during testosterone therapy. It is also the basis of the discredited HCG diet, which is a separate story and not supported by evidence.

Also: Human menopausal gonadotropin, Menotropins, Menotrophin

HMG (human menopausal gonadotropin, sold as menotropins under the brand Menopur) is a purified hormone mix extracted from the urine of postmenopausal women. Each standard vial carries 75 IU of FSH activity and 75 IU of LH activity, with most of the LH activity coming from hCG. It is an FDA-approved fertility drug used to stimulate egg development in IVF, and it is also used, mostly off-label in the US, together with hCG to kick-start sperm production in men whose pituitary does not make enough FSH and LH. This one has decades of real clinical use behind it.

Also: Cetrotide, Cetrorelix acetate

Cetrorelix is a GnRH antagonist: a modified 10-amino-acid version of the brain's gonadotropin-releasing hormone that blocks its receptor instead of activating it. Sold as Cetrotide and FDA-approved since August 2000, its job in IVF is narrow and important: it stops the body's own LH surge from releasing eggs too early while the ovaries are being stimulated. It is a well-established fertility drug with decades of use, and it is not a tool for anything else people sometimes imagine it for.

Also: Ganirelix acetate, Orgalutran, Fyremadel

Ganirelix is a GnRH antagonist used in IVF to stop the body from ovulating too early while the ovaries are being stimulated. The FDA approved it in July 1999 (originally from Organon, now also sold as generics such as Fyremadel), and it comes as a ready-to-use 250 mcg prefilled syringe. It does the same job as cetrorelix, with a slightly longer half-life. It is a boring, reliable fertility drug, and that is a compliment.

Also: Lupron, Lupron Depot, Eligard

Leuprolide (brand name Lupron) is a synthetic GnRH agonist, a modified peptide far more potent than natural GnRH, and it is FDA-approved for advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and central precocious puberty. The clever part is counterintuitive: it works by overstimulating the GnRH system so hard that the pituitary shuts down sex hormone production. It is a real, long-established prescription drug (first US approval 1985), not a research peptide, and it carries meaningful side effects from the low-hormone state it creates.

Also: Trelstar, Triptodur, Decapeptyl

Triptorelin is a synthetic analog of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) with a D-tryptophan swapped in at position 6, which makes it far more potent and longer-lasting than the natural hormone. As a long-acting depot it is FDA-approved to shut down testosterone in advanced prostate cancer (Trelstar) and to pause early puberty in children (Triptodur), and in Europe it is sold as Decapeptyl, including a short-acting 0.1 mg form used in IVF. In men's health circles it is known for something else: a single small dose used to 'restart' testosterone after steroid use. That idea rests on very little published evidence.