Hypothetical: Peptides With RFK Approval

[Neurogroot]

Just throwing out a hypothetical here. I keep seeing talk that RFK might ease up on peptides, and be fine with them being compounded “officially.” So, in theory, suppose that plays out.

My wife and I both have HSAs through work. In theory, could we “shop around” among the more reputable sources and have peptides covered by HSA funds? We've built up a fair amount, and even at the inflated prices, I figure we could cover the non-GLPs for a year at least, maybe 18 months, without paying anything out of pocket.

Or does it stay technically questionable, and always end up being a direct pay thing?

 

[woundcarping]

Spending HSA funds on a product that the grey market sells much cheaper doesn't make sense to me... how much risk you're willing to take is your own call.

 

[lasveganon]

Don't do that. You'd be burning good investment money on an item marked up 10x, which basically kills the point of having an hsa.

Might as well stroll into a hospital just for some ibuprofen.

 

[Neurogroot]

woundcarping said:

Spending HSA funds on a product that the grey market sells much cheaper doesn't make sense to me... how much risk you're willing to take is your own call.

You're making a solid observation. I tend to overlook the "utility" side of buying things. With this in particular, though, I've picked up 2 kits since I finally committed to purchasing, and now that storage and supplies are sorted, I'm probably romanticizing the notion of "growing my stockpile" more than I should. In practical terms, I'm aiming for a 2-year supply of the peptides I use most, though 3-4 years would be fine by me.

lasveganon said:

Don't do that. You'd be burning good investment money on an item marked up 10x, which basically kills the point of having an hsa.

Might as well stroll into a hospital just for some ibuprofen.

No argument here. Thinking it over, doing this would basically mean borrowing against my own future. Since 2021, between a few surgeries and all the imaging for a particular diagnosis, my yearly out-of-pocket has stayed under $1250. Honestly, at 40 years old, it would sting to burn $3500 in savings on MAYBE 10-15 vials if things go well. Holding onto that money for the unavoidable year of heavy medical costs and keeping myself financially safe is clearly the smarter call.

Thank you to everyone who read this and gave thoughtful responses. This community is unbelievably supportive, helpful, and even patient with my information gaps or half-baked ideas and questions. I'm eager to pay that forward as I keep learning here.

I suspect I just latched onto an impulsive thought, while also trying to spin something I see as mostly negative into something positive.

Over 5 months I believe I've spent more than $3000 on roughly 16 vials from single-vial sellers. By contrast, under 10% of that has gone to GLPs, which are the pricier peptides. 2 kits. That's 25% more vials than my earlier buys, for a bit under 10% of what I used to pay. I think I've reached the eye-opening stage of forum membership, given what I've picked up. I'm simply thrilled about the possibilities, especially after the quality-of-life gains I've seen in a fairly short time from some of these peptides. Thanks for grounding me and keeping things realistic. This community is wonderful. I'm very grateful to be here!

 

[woundcarping]

Neurogroot said:

woundcarping said:

Spending HSA funds on a product that the grey market sells much cheaper doesn't make sense to me... how much risk you're willing to take is your own call.

You're making a solid observation. I tend to overlook the "utility" side of buying things. With this in particular, though, I've picked up 2 kits since I finally committed to purchasing, and now that storage and supplies are sorted, I'm probably romanticizing the notion of "growing my stockpile" more than I should. In practical terms, I'm aiming for a 2-year supply of the peptides I use most, though 3-4 years would be fine by me.

lasveganon said:

Don't do that. You'd be burning good investment money on an item marked up 10x, which basically kills the point of having an hsa.

Might as well stroll into a hospital just for some ibuprofen.

No argument here. Thinking it over, doing this would basically mean borrowing against my own future. Since 2021, between a few surgeries and all the imaging for a particular diagnosis, my yearly out-of-pocket has stayed under $1250. Honestly, at 40 years old, it would sting to burn $3500 in savings on MAYBE 10-15 vials if things go well. Holding onto that money for the unavoidable year of heavy medical costs and keeping myself financially safe is clearly the smarter call.

Thank you to everyone who read this and gave thoughtful responses. This community is unbelievably supportive, helpful, and even patient with my information gaps or half-baked ideas and questions. I'm eager to pay that forward as I keep learning here.

I suspect I just latched onto an impulsive thought, while also trying to spin something I see as mostly negative into something positive.

Over 5 months I believe I've spent more than $3000 on roughly 16 vials from single-vial sellers. By contrast, under 10% of that has gone to GLPs, which are the pricier peptides. 2 kits. That's 25% more vials than my earlier buys, for a bit under 10% of what I used to pay. I think I've reached the eye-opening stage of forum membership, given what I've picked up. I'm simply thrilled about the possibilities, especially after the quality-of-life gains I've seen in a fairly short time from some of these peptides. Thanks for grounding me and keeping things realistic. This community is wonderful. I'm very grateful to be here!

On order I've got 7200mg Tirz plus 5600mg Reta, and together they ran me somewhere around $2600ish.

If you figure the max trial dose with 10% overfill, that works out to about 18 years — and if that's your thing, it'd stretch past 20 years.

 

[Neurogroot]

woundcarping said:

Neurogroot said:

woundcarping said:

Spending HSA funds on a product that the grey market sells much cheaper doesn't make sense to me... how much risk you're willing to take is your own call.

You're making a solid observation. I tend to overlook the "utility" side of buying things. With this in particular, though, I've picked up 2 kits since I finally committed to purchasing, and now that storage and supplies are sorted, I'm probably romanticizing the notion of "growing my stockpile" more than I should. In practical terms, I'm aiming for a 2-year supply of the peptides I use most, though 3-4 years would be fine by me.

lasveganon said:

Don't do that. You'd be burning good investment money on an item marked up 10x, which basically kills the point of having an hsa.

Might as well stroll into a hospital just for some ibuprofen.

No argument here. Thinking it over, doing this would basically mean borrowing against my own future. Since 2021, between a few surgeries and all the imaging for a particular diagnosis, my yearly out-of-pocket has stayed under $1250. Honestly, at 40 years old, it would sting to burn $3500 in savings on MAYBE 10-15 vials if things go well. Holding onto that money for the unavoidable year of heavy medical costs and keeping myself financially safe is clearly the smarter call.

Thank you to everyone who read this and gave thoughtful responses. This community is unbelievably supportive, helpful, and even patient with my information gaps or half-baked ideas and questions. I'm eager to pay that forward as I keep learning here.

I suspect I just latched onto an impulsive thought, while also trying to spin something I see as mostly negative into something positive.

Over 5 months I believe I've spent more than $3000 on roughly 16 vials from single-vial sellers. By contrast, under 10% of that has gone to GLPs, which are the pricier peptides. 2 kits. That's 25% more vials than my earlier buys, for a bit under 10% of what I used to pay. I think I've reached the eye-opening stage of forum membership, given what I've picked up. I'm simply thrilled about the possibilities, especially after the quality-of-life gains I've seen in a fairly short time from some of these peptides. Thanks for grounding me and keeping things realistic. This community is wonderful. I'm very grateful to be here!

On order I've got 7200mg Tirz plus 5600mg Reta, and together they ran me somewhere around $2600ish.

If you figure the max trial dose with 10% overfill, that works out to about 18 years — and if that's your thing, it'd stretch past 20 years.

Whoa! Here I was thinking 300 mg of tirz in storage plus 200 mg of Reta inbound was impressive.

So if we're talking 20 years at max trial dosing, I get that it doesn't exactly "go bad," but does the strength fall off a lot once you pass 10 years — that magic figure I keep hearing? Once you hit that 10-year point, how potent is T? Is the decline linear, or does it go exponential afterward? Right now the various AI models aren't much help to me. While we were on the subject of dosing, one of them threw out "40000 - 50000 mcg per dose" for KPV, subcutaneous. After a few rounds of me getting annoyed with the prompts, it owned up to the mistake, saying it had been off by a factor of 100.

 

[woundcarping]

Neurogroot said:

woundcarping said:

Neurogroot said:

woundcarping said:

Spending HSA funds on a product that the grey market sells much cheaper doesn't make sense to me... how much risk you're willing to take is your own call.

You're making a solid observation. I tend to overlook the "utility" side of buying things. With this in particular, though, I've picked up 2 kits since I finally committed to purchasing, and now that storage and supplies are sorted, I'm probably romanticizing the notion of "growing my stockpile" more than I should. In practical terms, I'm aiming for a 2-year supply of the peptides I use most, though 3-4 years would be fine by me.

lasveganon said:

Don't do that. You'd be burning good investment money on an item marked up 10x, which basically kills the point of having an hsa.

Might as well stroll into a hospital just for some ibuprofen.

No argument here. Thinking it over, doing this would basically mean borrowing against my own future. Since 2021, between a few surgeries and all the imaging for a particular diagnosis, my yearly out-of-pocket has stayed under $1250. Honestly, at 40 years old, it would sting to burn $3500 in savings on MAYBE 10-15 vials if things go well. Holding onto that money for the unavoidable year of heavy medical costs and keeping myself financially safe is clearly the smarter call.

Thank you to everyone who read this and gave thoughtful responses. This community is unbelievably supportive, helpful, and even patient with my information gaps or half-baked ideas and questions. I'm eager to pay that forward as I keep learning here.

I suspect I just latched onto an impulsive thought, while also trying to spin something I see as mostly negative into something positive.

Over 5 months I believe I've spent more than $3000 on roughly 16 vials from single-vial sellers. By contrast, under 10% of that has gone to GLPs, which are the pricier peptides. 2 kits. That's 25% more vials than my earlier buys, for a bit under 10% of what I used to pay. I think I've reached the eye-opening stage of forum membership, given what I've picked up. I'm simply thrilled about the possibilities, especially after the quality-of-life gains I've seen in a fairly short time from some of these peptides. Thanks for grounding me and keeping things realistic. This community is wonderful. I'm very grateful to be here!

On order I've got 7200mg Tirz plus 5600mg Reta, and together they ran me somewhere around $2600ish.

If you figure the max trial dose with 10% overfill, that works out to about 18 years — and if that's your thing, it'd stretch past 20 years.

Whoa! Here I was thinking 300 mg of tirz in storage plus 200 mg of Reta inbound was impressive.

So if we're talking 20 years at max trial dosing, I get that it doesn't exactly "go bad," but does the strength fall off a lot once you pass 10 years — that magic figure I keep hearing? Once you hit that 10-year point, how potent is T? Is the decline linear, or does it go exponential afterward? Right now the various AI models aren't much help to me. While we were on the subject of dosing, one of them threw out "40000 - 50000 mcg per dose" for KPV, subcutaneous. After a few rounds of me getting annoyed with the prompts, it owned up to the mistake, saying it had been off by a factor of 100.

Honestly, I'm not sure. That 10 year figure comes from Janoshik's testing of HGH discovered in his garage — or freezer, I'd guess — that had been sitting there forgotten. The exact degradation numbers escape me, but supposedly it was pretty much nothing.

Tirz has only existed for roughly a decade, so there's no real way to "know" for sure, particularly once you account for manufacturing variances, how well the vial seals hold up, storage conditions, and so on.

One thing I'm sure of: Tirz that's in your hand "works" far better than Tirz that isn't, no matter how long it's spent in the freezer.