Patients ask what growth hormone costs long before they ask anything else about it, and the honest answer has two halves: what the medication costs, and what it costs to be prescribed it responsibly.
The figure
In the United States, adult growth hormone therapy typically runs between $2,000 and $3,000 a month, and it is rarely covered by insurance for adult deficiency. In Costa Rica the same therapy generally works out around $550 a month. That is a saving of roughly 60 to 70 percent, and it is the single reason most of our HGH patients first got on a plane.
What it is not is a different product. What is dispensed here is brand-name Norditropin, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, in the manufacturer's sealed and labelled pen: the same box, the same batch numbering and the same expiry dating as the pen sold in a U.S. pharmacy. The gap is in pharmacy pricing and drug-price regulation between the two countries, not in the molecule.
Why the dose decides the price
Growth hormone is dosed in milligrams per day, and a patient on a conservative adult replacement dose will go through a pen far more slowly than someone on an aggressive one. Any figure quoted before your IGF-1 and hormone panel is therefore an estimate. We would rather tell you that than publish a number that turns out not to be yours.
This is also why therapy is not sold here as a package. The panel and the consultation come first, and what follows is prescribed against the results.
What the pen is like to live with
The Norditropin pen is prefilled and dials to a set dose, so there is no drawing up and no mixing. It needs refrigeration before first use, and once in use it tolerates room temperature for around two to three weeks depending on the presentation, which is what makes travelling with it practical rather than a logistical problem. You leave with a labelled prescription and written handling guidance for the flight.
A word on what you are buying
Growth hormone is the most counterfeited product in this field. If a price looks dramatically below what is described here, that is worth treating as information rather than as a bargain. Ask what brand it is, who manufactured it, and to see the packaging. A clinic that cannot answer all three is not one to buy a prescription medication from, here or anywhere else.
