547 evidence-based articles, checked against primary sources.
Orforglipron is an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist in late-stage trials. Unlike oral semaglutide it is a small molecule rather than a peptide, so it does not need an absorption enhancer or an empty stomach. Phase 3 results have reported weight loss in the range of the injectables. It is not approved, and nothing sold under the name today is the real drug.
Peptide is a chemistry term, not a category of treatment. Some peptides are FDA-approved drugs with large outcome trials — semaglutide, bremelanotide, teriparatide. Others are sold online as research chemicals with no approval, no dose-finding studies and no verification of what is in the vial. Here is how to tell which is which before deciding anything.
Sermorelin was an FDA-approved drug for diagnosing and treating growth hormone deficiency in children before it was withdrawn from the market in 2008 for business reasons. It now circulates through compounding pharmacies and wellness clinics for anti-ageing, body composition and sleep — none of which it was approved or tested for in healthy adults.
CJC-1295 is sold widely online as an anti-ageing and body-composition peptide. It does raise growth hormone in humans — that part is real. What does not exist is evidence that it improves body composition, sleep, skin or recovery, and the FDA has placed it in the category of bulk substances presenting significant safety risks for compounding. Here is what is actually known.
Abaloparatide is a daily self-injection for postmenopausal women at high fracture risk. It stimulates bone formation through the same receptor as parathyroid hormone, cut new vertebral fractures by 86% in its pivotal trial, and appears to cause less hypercalcaemia than teriparatide. Like every bone-building drug, what follows the course decides whether the gain lasts.
Romosozumab is a monthly injection for postmenopausal women at high fracture risk. It is the only osteoporosis drug that both builds bone and slows its breakdown, and it works for exactly twelve months. It also carries a boxed warning for heart attack and stroke, and everything gained is lost within a year unless another drug follows it.
Bremelanotide is FDA-approved as Vyleesi for low sexual desire in premenopausal women. It works on melanocortin receptors in the brain, is taken on demand rather than daily, and its trial effect size is modest. Here is what the evidence shows, why the approval stops at menopause, and how to tell a prescription product from the peptide vials sold online.
ALT is the most liver-specific value on the panel. AST also comes from muscle, so exercise or injury can raise it with normal liver.
A muscular woman can have a high-normal creatinine with healthy kidneys. A woman who has lost muscle can have a reassuring number while filtration has declined.
Only free hormone acts on tissues. High SHBG binds more of it, so total testosterone can read normal while the free fraction is low.
Oral estrogen raises CRP directly through first-pass liver metabolism. Transdermal does not, so route changes how the number should be read.
In SWAN, LDL and apolipoprotein B accelerated within a year either side of the final menstrual period rather than drifting up with age. A panel drawn before that window is out of date.
Denosumab does not bind to bone. When it clears, bone resorption rebounds above baseline and the density gained is lost within 6 to 12 months.
What happens after your last dose depends entirely on the class. Bisphosphonates keep working; denosumab rebounds; anabolic gains are lost without follow-on treatment.
Given once yearly for treatment. An acute phase reaction after the first infusion is common, feels like brief flu, and is much less likely with later doses.
FRAX gives a 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fracture and of hip fracture. It ignores falls history, dose and duration of risk factors, and spine density.
A SERM that acts like estrogen on bone and blocks it in breast tissue. Reduces spinal fractures and invasive breast cancer risk; increases clot risk and hot flashes.
Estrogen patch prescriptions rose about 162% in two years and manufacturing did not keep pace. The gaps are manufacturer-specific, which is why one pharmacy has stock and another does not.