Melanotan I (Afamelanotide)

Melanotan I is a peptide. Its real drug name is afamelanotide, sold as Scenesse.

Your body makes a hormone that tells your skin to make a brown color called melanin. Melanin is what gives skin a tan. Melanotan I copies that hormone. So your skin makes more melanin and gets darker.

It is FDA-approved, but only in a narrow way. It is approved for a rare disease called EPP. People with EPP get burning pain from sunlight. Doctors place a tiny implant under the skin every 2 months. That is not the same as someone giving themselves shots to get a tan.

Doctors use it for the rare sun-pain disease, EPP. It lets those people spend more time in the sun without pain.

Most other people who seek it out want a tan without the sun. They buy the unapproved kind and inject it themselves.

If your goal is sex drive, this is not the one. MT-I is the "cleaner" cousin without that effect. The approved drug for low desire is PT-141.

For the rare disease EPP, yes. Two Phase 3 trials showed people got more pain-free time in the sun. That is why it got approved.

For just getting a tan, it does darken your skin. But no real studies checked if doing that, by self-shots, is safe over time. The approved use is small, careful doses under a doctor. Cosmetic tanning is none of those things.

So the tan is real. Whether it is worth the risk has never been tested.

The approved way is an implant a doctor places under your skin every 2 months. You do not do this part yourself. A skin specialist handles it.

People who buy the research-only kind mix a powder with liquid and inject it under the skin. There is no tested, safe home dose for tanning. Common amounts people talk about are around 10 mg a month, but that is guesswork, not a trial.

We do not suggest the home-shot route at all.

The serious stuff

Melanotan I wakes up the cells in your skin that make color. Those same cells are the ones that can turn into melanoma, a dangerous skin cancer. The long-term cancer risk from cosmetic use is unknown.

If you have ever had melanoma, or have lots of odd moles, do not use this.

The common stuff

This one is called the "cleaner" cousin. It has fewer stomach and other side effects than Melanotan II.

If you do use it, get your skin checked by a doctor often. Watch for new or changing moles. And remember: this does not protect you from sunburn or damage. Talk to a real doctor first. We are not your doctor.

Here are the ways people get it, from safest to riskiest.

• Brand (Scenesse). A real implant from a specialty pharmacy, with a prescription, for the EPP disease only. Safest, but it costs about $40,000+ a year and is billed to insurance. Not sold for tanning.
• Compounded. There is no real compounded version. Some clinics resell the research kind for $300–$800 and call it compounded. It usually is not.
• Research-only (RUO) or gray market. Cheap, about $50–$120 a month for RUO, or even less from overseas. Sold "for research only," with no promise of what is in the vial. Highest risk.

One big scam: vials labeled "Melanotan I" often ship as Melanotan II instead. That is a different drug with stronger side effects. If your vial made you sick to your stomach or gave you erections, you got MT-II. Ask for a COA, a lab report showing what is really in the vial.