IGF-1 blood test

A low IGF-1 doesn't automatically mean the GH is fake. IGF-1 secretion is pulsatile over 24 hours after an injection and the system is complex—many factors determine whether the liver produces IGF-1. Pinning GH doesn't guarantee a high IGF-1; 2.5 hours is likely too soon since GH often peaks after about four hours. If you wanted to confirm authenticity, you should've done a Growth Hormone serum test rather than IGF-1. The same pattern could happen even with pharmaceutical-grade GH.

Appreciate the perspective. I thought IGF stayed elevated for quite a while after dosing. I was on 4 units nightly for a couple months, took 4 units the night before labs, another 4 units at 4:00 a.m., and my blood was drawn at 6:30.

That 135 sounds bogus. Try testing 3 to 3.5 hours post-injection. That result sucks to see.

Are you in a calorie deficit, cutting, or on very low carbs? Caloric restriction is a major suppressor of liver IGF-1 output. When calories and insulin are low, the liver downregulates GH receptors, so it won't convert circulating GH into IGF-1 effectively regardless of dose. That doesn't mean the GH is fake—GH has strong direct lipolytic, anti-catabolic, and tissue-protective effects independent of liver-derived IGF-1.

For me, the easiest sign GH is working is a morning stiffness in my fingers after injecting 3–4 IU before bed. It usually shows up after 4–5 days. It won't tell you exact dosing, but it indicates it's over about 2 IU for me, since I get that joint stiffness above 2 IU.

Yeah, it's a tough one. For most people, an IGF-1 of 135 after dosing 2.5 hours before the draw is basically baseline. If you've been running it consistently, real HGH at 4 IU would typically raise it above that. You still earned the progress you made. Things should improve once you use genuine, domestically tested product.

I had the same experience. I was taking 4–6 IU from a source and my IGF numbers weren't what I expected. I thought I was doing something wrong or that the gear was bunk. I've seen others using that same source post highly elevated IGF levels, though. After digging in, I realized using IGF-1 like that isn't a reliable indicator. I'm planning to get a serum GH test at some point.

There's a lot of discussion that serum IGF-1 isn't a reliable test for this. You can get a serum result that looks good while the product you bought is actually a cheap peptide. Peptides won't raise IGF-1 the way HGH does—raising IGF-1 is the whole point of using HGH—so you can get misleading results.

Yep, I've been on a lower-carb diet lately and I was fasted for about 9–10 hours at the time of the draw.

I do get intense hunger about 30 minutes after taking my 4 units. It's probably just acting like a secretagogue.

Yep, low carbs will do that.

I pulled a 244 IGF after 250 mcg of ipamorelin the night before labs. Curious to see what it looks like on 4 units of GH in a few weeks.

IGF-1 by itself is affected by a lot of things. Hopefully it was just diet and the gear isn't bunk. Given your progress at 4 IU, you'd probably already suspect it. Do you have a baseline IGF-1 from before you started? My baseline while only on test came back 181 IGF-1 with a 0.6 z-score, while in a calorie deficit. Now I'm doing 2.5 IU nightly fasted before bed, keeping the same diet as before starting 2.5 IU. I wait about five hours after eating to inject to give the 'reta' extra time before bed. After eight weeks I'll recheck IGF-1 to compare, and I'll also do a serum GH test three hours after injecting 10 IU IM. I'm pretty sure it's legit GH; I'm just comparing numbers batch-to-batch and against COAs. Four more weeks then I'll titrate up, eat a lot, watch glucose, and run labs every eight weeks after that. Loving the sleep and the fat loss, but using IGF-1 to judge GH is tricky—too many variables and it leaves a lot of people confused.

This was my first IGF-1 test ever. I'm pretty new to PEDs and I've never run HGH before this.

Don't overthink IGF-1 timing. Run your usual GH dose consistently for a few weeks, then test under the same conditions each time. The old 10 IU 3–4 hours pre-bloodwork trick is aimed at measuring GH serum, not IGF-1.

That’s pretty much what I did: my regular nightly dose (what I’ve been on for about six weeks) before bed, plus an extra dose when I woke up 2.5 hours before the draw. Result was 135. Two coworkers are using the same stuff; I'm trying to get one of them to test, but I'm leaning toward this being fake HGH since the IGF result is so low.