Melanotan II with PT-141 dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Two drugs from the melanocortin family used together, and one is what the other turns into.
Evidence grade for Melanotan II with PT-141: Limited. The rule: people have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. The sum on this page: 3 completed trials, 10 people given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 10
- Human studies
- 3
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
3 completed trials, 10 people given it
7 effects reported, 5 unwanted, 2 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Fat loss and metabolism, Hormones and growth hormone
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Two tanning and libido peptides run together. Here is the part nobody mentions. PT-141 is what your body turns melanotan II into. So this is one drug and its own breakdown product, taken at the same time. That is not two things.
What people take it for
- Erections and sex drive.
- Getting a tan with less sun.
- Appetite suppression, which comes along for the ride.
What studies in people showed
Nobody has tested the pair. Each has its own trial. Ten men with erection problems and no physical cause each tried melanotan II and a dummy shot, without knowing which was which. Eight of the ten got clear erections. Firm erections lasted 38.0 minutes on the drug against 3.0 minutes on the dummy. Nausea, yawning, stretching and lower appetite were more common on the drug. A second study looked at men whose problem did have a physical cause. PT-141 has two big final stage trials in women with low sex drive, which is what it is approved for. Nobody has ever run a trial of melanotan II for tanning, which is what most people buy it for.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- Erections and more desire, which is the point.
- A tan without much sun, from the melanotan half.
The bad
- Nausea and flushing in the first hour. This is the most common report and it showed up in the real trial too.
- Yawning and stretching you cannot stop. Also in the trial.
- Moles and freckles going darker, and new dark spots.
- Headache, and higher blood pressure readings at bigger doses.
- The mole problem is the serious one. A changing mole is the main early warning sign for skin cancer. This drug changes all of them.
Where these come from: The nausea, yawning and stretching are from the trial with the dummy shot. The pigment changes come from a dermatology review of unregulated use of these drugs and from user forums.
My bottom line
One of these two is a metabolite of the other, so stacking them is just more of one drug. And if you have unusual moles or any melanoma in the family, do not take something whose whole job is to darken them.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals Melanotan II with PT-141 has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Feeling less hungry10 people · 1 study
- Libido and sexual functionno headcount stated · 1 study
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with Melanotan II with PT-141, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
32 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Melanotan II with PT-141
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Melanotan II with PT-141 does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Melanotan II with PT-141 and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Melanotan II with PT-141?
Two drugs from the melanocortin family used together, and one is what the other turns into. That is the whole problem. Bremelanotide (PT-141) is what melanotan II becomes in the body. So this is one kind of drug taken twice: the parent that darkens skin, plus its approved breakdown product, at the same time. Vial sizes are not the same across sellers, and nobody has studied the pair.
Bremelanotide, sold as PT-141, is a breakdown product of melanotan II. That link is why both exist. It is also why stacking them makes very little sense.
Melanotan II is a lab-made copy of a skin hormone called alpha-MSH. In one study, ten men with erection trouble that had no physical cause took it on one day and a dummy shot on another. Neither they nor the staff knew which was which. 8 of the 10 got a clear erection on the drug. On average, firmness stayed above 80% for 38.0 minutes on melanotan II, against 3.0 minutes on the dummy. Short-lived nausea, stretching and yawning, and less appetite were more common on the drug. A separate study tested it in men whose erection trouble had a physical cause. Melanotan II also does what most people buy it for, which is darkening the skin. It does that by pressing the switch that makes skin pigment.
Bremelanotide was built as the version without the skin darkening, and it is an approved medicine. Two large final-stage studies tested it in women before menopause who had low sexual desire that upset them. That is the use it is approved for.
So using them together means taking a drug and its own breakdown product at the same time. They press overlapping switches. Their side effects overlap. Nausea in particular comes with this whole drug family, not with just one of them. A stack of the two is closest to a bigger dose of one, plus the sure skin darkening from the parent.
There is also a skin worry that belongs on this page. A review of the risks of using these skin hormone copies without a doctor covers the skin problems reported by users. People buy melanotan II to darken their skin and moles. That is the opposite of what skin doctors advise for anyone with unusual moles. No vial size is standard across sellers, so this page does not give a per-unit amount.
How does Melanotan II with PT-141 work?
Both press several melanocortin switches at once. Bremelanotide works mostly through the MC4 switch in the brain, which is the sexual desire path. Melanotan II also strongly presses the MC1 switch in pigment cells, which is the skin darkening path. The body breaks part of it down into bremelanotide. Stacking a drug with its own breakdown product gives one way of working, not two.
What have studies in people found about Melanotan II with PT-141?
Each drug has studies in people. The stack does not. And the two are the same kind of drug, with one being what the other breaks down into.
- Bremelanotide: two large final-stage studies in women before menopause with low sexual desire that upset them. These are what its approval rests on.
- Melanotan II: in a small study where each man had both the drug and a dummy shot, 8 of 10 men got a clear erection. Firmness above 80% lasted 38.0 minutes on the drug, against 3.0 minutes on the dummy.
- Nausea comes with this whole drug family, and it showed up in the melanotan II study.
- Using these skin hormone copies without a doctor has its own record of reported skin problems.
- The stack: no published study and no listed trial.
What this does not tell you: No study has looked at taking a melanocortin drug with its own breakdown product. And no study has tested melanotan II for tanning, which is what most buyers want it for.
What do people who took Melanotan II with PT-141 report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- Nausea and flushing within the first hour. This is the most steady report for either drug.
- Yawning and stretching out of nowhere. This is a known effect of this drug family and showed up in the controlled study.
- Erections and more desire, which is what both are taken for.
- Existing moles and freckles getting darker, and new dark spots, from the melanotan II half.
- Less appetite.
- Headache, and at higher amounts, a raised blood pressure reading.
Sources: The nausea, yawning and stretching appear in the melanotan II controlled trial. The pigment changes and the rest come from forums including r/peptides and from the dermatological review of unregulated alpha-MSH analogue use.
The state of the research
The useful point is how the drugs relate. Bremelanotide is a breakdown product of melanotan II. So using both is not mixing two drugs. It is taking a drug and what it turns into together, at a total dose neither study tested.
The serious point is about skin. Melanotan II darkens skin by pressing the switch that drives pigment. It darkens existing moles along with everything else. That gets in the way of the most useful thing about moles: a change in one is a warning sign. Some people have a clear reason to avoid a drug whose whole purpose is to change how their moles look. That includes anyone with unusual moles, anyone with melanoma in themselves or their family, and anyone whose skin burns easily.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
10people, across 1 study in people cited here
| Study | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Journal of Urology 1998 | 10 | 100% |
The whole total is one study of 10. Counts are the number of people each study on this page says it signed up. That includes studies that only watched people and gave nobody the compound. 2 more studies in people give no headcount and are not counted here. Studies still signing people up are left out, and only studies cited on this page are counted.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
3 of 4 sources here are studies in people. The rest is not.
- Study in people · done in people375%
- Review of studies · sums up other studies125%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 4 different years, 1998 to 2019, counted from the list of sources on this page. The newest source on file is from 2019, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Blend
- Molecule weight
- Not on file
- Half-life
- Stated in words, not a numbersee the exact wording below
- Chain length
- None on file
Half-life as stated on file: Not defined for the pairing. Both are used episodically rather than on a fixed schedule, and no pharmacokinetic study of the two together exists.
No amino acid sequence is on file for Melanotan II with PT-141, which is expected: a blend is not built from amino acids.
Fig. 6 · what is in the vial
We cannot show how much of each is in this blend
Sellers do not agree on a vial size for Melanotan II with PT-141, so nobody outside can know how much of each ingredient is in it. Splitting the bar evenly would make up the very number this page is here to question.
- Melanotan IIStrong. At least two finished studies in people, and at least 1,000 people who took it. 5 completed trials, 1,310 people given it.amount not stated
- Bremelanotide (PT-141)Strong. At least two finished studies in people, and at least 1,000 people who took it. 4 completed trials, 2,355 people given it.amount not stated
Ingredient list from the product labels we have. Amounts are what the label says is in the vial, never a dose.
The studies we cite
- Study in people1998Synthetic melanotropic peptide initiates erections in men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction: double-blind, placebo controlled crossover study
Melanotan II caused erections in most of a very small group of men. Ten men whose erection trouble had no physical cause each took the peptide and a dummy shot on separate days. Nobody knew which was which on the day. Eight of the ten got a clear erection on the drug. A monitor recorded firmness above four fifths of full for 38 minutes on average, against 3 minutes on the dummy. Nausea, stretching, yawning and loss of appetite were all more common on the drug.
Ten men with erectile dysfunction of no known organic cause, double-blind placebo-controlled crossover with real-time RigiScan monitoring over six hours. Clinically apparent erections developed in 8 of 10 men on melanotan II. Mean duration of tip rigidity above 80% was 38.0 minutes on melanotan II against 3.0 minutes on placebo, p = 0.0045. Transient nausea, stretching and yawning, and decreased appetite were more frequent on melanotan II.
- Study in people2000Effect of an alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone analog on penile erection and sexual desire in men with organic erectile dysfunction
The same kind of peptide also worked in men whose erection trouble had a physical cause, which is the harder group to help. Men got the drug or a dummy by chance, and both erections and sexual desire got better. This was another small study. The usual problems of this drug family came with it: nausea, flushing and yawning.
A randomised study of the same class of alpha-MSH analogue in men with organic rather than psychogenic erectile dysfunction, extending the erection and sexual desire findings to a harder population. Small, and again with the melanocortin class side effects.
- Study in people2019Bremelanotide for the Treatment of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder: Two Randomized Phase 3 Trials
Bremelanotide has approval-grade evidence behind it, and it is for something other than most buyers assume. Two large studies tested it in women before menopause who had lost sexual desire and were upset by that. Those studies are what regulators approved it on. Read who was studied. The evidence is in women, and it is about desire. It is not evidence about erections, and it is not evidence in men.
Two randomised phase 3 trials of bremelanotide in premenopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, the studies behind its approval. This is the evidence for the metabolite half of the stack, in women, for desire rather than erection.
- Review of studies2017Risks of unregulated use of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone analogues: a review
This is a skin doctors' review, not a test. It gathers what has been reported in people using these skin hormone copies without a doctor. That is the safety record that matters for melanotan II, because the drug has never been through a regulator's safety testing.
A dermatology review of what has been reported in people using unregulated alpha-MSH analogues, which is the relevant safety literature for melanotan II because the drug has never been through a regulatory safety programme.
Where to buy Melanotan II with PT-141
No seller we track lists Melanotan II with PT-141 yet. We read sellers’ public product lists every week, and this section fills in as soon as one does. Every seller, graded
Common questions
Has Melanotan II with PT-141 been tested in people?
Yes. 10 people given it across 3 completed trials cited here, 0 of which found nothing. Two drugs from the melanocortin family used together, and one is what the other turns into.
What is the Melanotan II with PT-141 dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 3 completed trials, 10 people given it
Is Melanotan II with PT-141 FDA-approved?
Bremelanotide is FDA approved for low sex drive that causes distress (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) in women before menopause. Melanotan II is not approved anywhere, and regulators in several countries have warned about it.
Why is stacking these two a problem?
Bremelanotide is a breakdown product of melanotan II. Taking both means taking a drug and what it turns into, at the same time. That is one way of working at a higher total dose, not two ways.
What did the melanotan II trial show?
In ten men with erection trouble that had no physical cause, 8 of 10 got a clear erection. Firmness above 80% lasted 38.0 minutes on average, against 3.0 minutes on the dummy shot.
Is the tanning effect studied?
Not in a proper study. Tanning is what most people buy melanotan II for, and it has never been tested for that. That is also why nobody has mapped its long-term risk to skin.
Who should not use melanotan II?
Anyone with unusual moles, anyone with melanoma in themselves or their family, or anyone whose skin burns easily. Darkening moles hides the visible change that is the main early warning sign of skin cancer.
Is either one approved?
Bremelanotide is approved for low sexual desire that causes distress, in women before menopause. Melanotan II is not approved anywhere, and regulators in several countries have warned about it.