Peptide therapy and BPC-157, a clinician's overview

“Peptide therapy” has become a catch-all term covering everything from FDA-approved hormones to research compounds you read about on a forum. This paper sorts that out. It explains what peptides are, walks through BPC-157 specifically because it is the most-asked-about, and is honest about where the evidence is strong and where it is not.

What a peptide is

A peptide is a short chain of amino acids, usually fewer than 50. Proteins are long chains. Peptides are short. That is the only structural difference. The body uses peptides as signaling molecules. Insulin is a peptide. So is oxytocin. So is glucagon-like peptide 1, the basis for semaglutide and tirzepatide.

When clinicians say “peptide therapy,” they generally mean prescribing a peptide as a medication for a specific goal. The most common goals are tissue repair, recovery, sleep, sexual function, and metabolic health.

The categories you should know

Peptides land in three regulatory buckets:

1. FDA-approved peptides. Insulin, sermorelin (a growth hormone releaser), tesamorelin, PT-141 (bremelanotide), and the GLP-1 class fall here. These have full safety and efficacy data behind them.
2. Compounded peptides. Pharmacies can compound certain peptides under section 503A or 503B of the FDA’s compounding rules. The list of what is permitted has narrowed over the past two years (FDA, 2023). A reputable clinic stays inside this list.
3. Research peptides. Available on the gray market, labeled “not for human use,” with no safety oversight and no quality control. These are not what Station Medical works with. If you have been using one, bring the source so we can review it honestly.

BPC-157 falls into the third category for now. Read on for what that means in practice.

What BPC-157 is

BPC-157 stands for “body protection compound” with the 157 referring to its position in a specific gastric protein. It is a 15-amino-acid fragment found in human gastric juice (Sikiric et al., Croatia, 1990s through 2010s). Researchers there showed it accelerates healing in animal models of muscle, tendon, ligament, and gut tissue injury.

The animal data is genuinely interesting. The human data is thin. As of 2026, no large randomized controlled trial has been published in humans, and BPC-157 is not FDA approved (FDA, 2023). In 2023 the FDA explicitly removed BPC-157 from the list of bulk substances that compounding pharmacies are permitted to use, citing the lack of safety data.

That does not mean it does not work. It means the work has not been done.

What patients tend to use it for

In clinics that still source it, the most common reasons are:

• Tendinopathy that has not resolved with physical therapy.
• Post-injury recovery for sports.
• Inflammatory bowel symptoms.

Anecdotally, the response is variable. Some patients describe meaningful improvement in tendon pain. Others notice nothing. There are no validated dose-response curves in humans, no pharmacokinetic data, and no published adverse event rates.

The honest tradeoff

A clinician who tells you BPC-157 is “completely safe” is not being straight with you. A clinician who tells you it cannot possibly help is also not being straight. The truthful version is: the animal evidence is suggestive, the human evidence is absent, and the regulatory status changed in 2023.

At Station Medical, we approach this conservatively. We focus on the peptides that have either FDA approval or a defensible compounding pathway and clinical data. That is a moving target. If a peptide moves into the approved or compoundable list with quality data behind it, we revisit.

What we do prescribe

For the most common goals patients arrive with, we typically work with:

• Sermorelin or tesamorelin for adults with documented age-related growth hormone decline and clear clinical indications.
• PT-141 (bremelanotide) for sexual function, with an FDA approval for hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women and off-label use in men.
• GLP-1 agonists (semaglutide, tirzepatide) for weight management.
• CJC-1295 and ipamorelin in patients who meet criteria and for whom the compounded pathway is still appropriate.

Each requires bloodwork, a clear indication, a discussed plan, and follow-up. We do not prescribe peptides as a wellness blanket. We prescribe them when the clinical picture supports it.

What to bring to a peptide visit

• Recent labs (within 12 months is ideal). If you do not have them, we draw what we need.
• A specific goal. “I want to feel better” is too broad. “My patellar tendon has hurt for eight months and physical therapy plateaued” is something we can work with.
• An honest history of what you have already tried, including supplements and any peptides obtained outside a clinic.

The next step

If you are curious about peptide therapy, the first visit is mostly listening. We figure out what you are actually trying to fix, what data we have, what data we need, and whether a peptide is the right tool or whether something else (rehabilitation, sleep evaluation, endocrine workup) gets you further faster.