ASCEND Blend for Women: Pregnancy, Cancer History, Blood Sugar and What the Research Covers

Tesamorelin is the component with real human trials. The 2007 New England Journal of Medicine trial randomised 412 people with HIV and abdominal fat accumulation to tesamorelin 2 mg daily or placebo for 26 weeks and reported a fall in visceral fat on CT. A 2012 trial in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism gave 60 abdominally obese adults with reduced growth hormone secretion tesamorelin 2 mg or placebo for 12 months and reported a reduction in visceral fat with no change in glucose measures.

For women. The live research does not report either trial by sex, so nobody can say from it whether women respond as men do. Both used 2 mg daily; an ASCEND dose carries 0.5 mg of tesamorelin five nights a week. Neither is evidence about appearance or scale weight, and the approved label calls tesamorelin weight-neutral. More is in tesamorelin for women.

In a 1997 trial in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, ten women and nine men aged 55 to 71 self-injected a GHRH(1-29) analogue, the molecule sold as sermorelin, nightly for 16 weeks. Growth hormone and IGF-1 rose in both sexes and skin thickness increased in both, but the increases in lean mass and insulin sensitivity were seen in men only. That molecule is not in ASCEND. It is the clearest signal in the live research that the growth hormone axis does not respond identically in women, which is a reason not to assume results from mixed or male-weighted groups transfer directly. See sermorelin for women.

CJC-1295's human evidence is two small 2006 studies of its DAC form in healthy adults, reporting rises in growth hormone and IGF-1. Ipamorelin has volunteer pharmacokinetic work and a phase 2 trial for post-operative ileus that did not show a difference from placebo. Some animal work used female animals, such as a 2000 study in the Journal of Endocrinology reporting ipamorelin increasing bone mineral content in adult female rats, but a female rat is not a perimenopausal woman. IGF-1 LR3 has essentially no published human clinical studies of any kind. None of this reports results for women.

The approved tesamorelin labeling lists pregnancy as a contraindication, on the reasoning that visceral fat increases during pregnancy as a normal physiological change, modifying it offers no known benefit, and animal data describe fetal harm. It directs discontinuation if a patient becomes pregnant while taking it. The other three components have no pregnancy safety data. ASCEND is not used in pregnancy. If you are pregnant, trying to conceive or think you may be, tell your physician; if you become pregnant on treatment, stop and contact them the same day. See can you take peptides while pregnant and do peptides affect fertility.

The approved tesamorelin labeling states there are no data on tesamorelin in human milk, on effects on a breastfed child or on milk production, and advises that mothers should not breastfeed while receiving it. ASCEND is not used while breastfeeding.

This is where ASCEND differs most from a single secretagogue for women. IGF-1 promotes the growth and survival of cells, not only muscle cells. A 2004 systematic review in the Lancet reported that higher circulating IGF-1 in the general population was associated with a higher risk of prostate, premenopausal breast and colorectal cancer. That is an association in observational data about the native hormone, not a demonstration that IGF-1 causes cancer. But in ASCEND both the secretagogues, which raise IGF-1, and IGF-1 LR3, which supplies an IGF-1 signal directly, point the same way. The approved tesamorelin product is contraindicated in active malignancy, and the approved native IGF-1 product in anyone with a malignancy or a history of one.

The prudent reading is that a personal or family history of cancer is a reason not to use this blend, and Pepti's intake treats it that way. A history of breast, ovarian or endometrial cancer goes on the intake in full. See can peptides cause cancer.

IGF-1 has insulin-like effects. A 1987 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that recombinant native IGF-1 given to healthy adults produced hypoglycaemia, and IGF-1 LR3 is designed to escape the binding proteins that buffer that effect. At 0.05 mg per dose the amount is small, but shakiness, sweating, sudden hunger, confusion or light-headedness after a dose mean eat something with sugar, then contact your care team.

Growth hormone from the three secretagogues pushes the other way, reducing insulin sensitivity over time; the approved tesamorelin label records new-onset diabetes in 5 percent of treated patients against 1 percent on placebo at 2 mg daily. Insulin sensitivity already tends to worsen through the menopausal transition, so diabetes, prediabetes or a tendency to low blood sugar belongs on the intake.

None of the four components acts on the ovarian axis, and no study in the live research has looked at cycle effects or hormonal contraception with any of them. Report any cycle change to your physician; it is more likely to be the transition or another cause, but it should be looked at.