Start with the facts
Melanotan 2 may color your skin, cut appetite, and bring unwanted erections.
Small studies found those effects. You can also read about skin cancer, kidney harm, and other grave reports.
What you may notice first
You may first notice one patch of skin growing darker. Melanotan 2 mimics your body's skin-color hormone. That hormone tells certain skin cells to produce brown pigment. A shot can start the change with little sunlight. The drug may also leave you less hungry or bring an erection.
Wanted effects don't make Melanotan 2 safe for you. Small, early studies recorded more skin color and more erections. Melanotan II has no FDA approval, and research-labelled vials are still sold online with contents a buyer cannot verify. Doctors have reported kidney harm, brain swelling, melanoma, painful erections, and changed moles. You can read people's own accounts on the effects page.
What Melanotan 2 changes in your body
Melanotan 2 is also called Melanotan II, MT-II, or MT-2. It acts like a body hormone used in skin color. Scientists changed that hormone during the late 1980s. Their version lasted longer and caused a stronger response [1]. It can affect several kinds of cells, not only skin cells [1].
In your skin, the drug prompts color-forming cells to produce melanin [1]. That brown pigment colors much of your skin and hair. The change can begin without sunlight. In the brain, the drug may affect hunger and erections.
A small 1996 study tested rising amounts beneath the skin. The study had only three healthy men in all. After five low doses, their faces and bodies looked darker [1]. Those results can't say what amount would be safe in your case. A licensed clinician can now consider a request for compounded melanotan II and decide whether to prescribe it.
For you, the drug's wide reach may explain both the wanted effects and the harms.
What the drug did to skin and erections
The first study looked at tanning, but erections surprised the team. Men had unplanned erections for one to five hours [1]. That finding led scientists to study the brain's part in the effect.
The next study was small and short. Ten men had erection trouble caused by fear or stress. The men and staff couldn't tell which shots held the drug. A placebo is a look-alike treatment with no drug. After one shot, eight of ten men had an erection staff could see. The drug kept erections firm longer than the placebo did [2].
Later work found that the erection starts with a message from the brain [3]. It doesn't begin in the blood vessels [3]. That helps explain why a Melanotan 2 erection may arrive unasked.
What can go wrong after the wanted effects
Your tan can draw attention away from a mole that has changed. Doctors have reported fresh moles while older spots grew darker. Some looked unlike a normal mole, and some Melanotan 2 users developed melanoma, a skin cancer [11][4]. Other melanotan 2 side effects reached well past the skin.
One report described broken muscle harming the kidneys [5]. Another described kidney tissue cut off from its blood supply [6]. Doctors also saw a painful erection that didn't end and one case of brain swelling [19].
The effects you want may occur alongside grave harm. Read the melanotan 2 dangers beside the Melanotan 2 research. The Melanotan 2 references page shows the study behind every number.