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Is Kisspeptin the New Improved Viagra?
If you have been struggling with erectile dysfunction (ED) and viagra hasn’t worked for you, you may already be researching kisspeptin, a potential, but at this stage experimental, treatment for ED. Kisspeptin, sometimes known as the “puberty protein”, is a neuropeptide, a naturally occurring hormone that stimulates the release of essential reproductive hormones inside the body.
First synthesised in the lab in 1996 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home to the Hershey’s Kisses chocolate factory (hence the name), it was initially found to be effective in stopping the spread of cancer cells. Further research identified it as a naturally occurring neurochemical in the human brain with a role in triggering the production of the sex hormone gonadotrophin, particularly during puberty. Gonadotrophin is responsible for releasing other sex hormones from the pituitary gland, in particular luteinizing hormone, which stimulates the male testes to make testosterone.
Kisspeptin’s role as a testosterone stimulant has been picked up by the bodybuilding community. Steroid use often leads to suppression of natural testosterone production in men who pump iron, resulting in shrinking testicles and lower sex drive. It is now well known in the muscle community that in addition to increasing natural testosterone levels, kisspeptin also increases sex drive and improves erections.
Sexual medicine researchers are now catching up. The reason for the interest is that existing ED medications, like viagra and cialis, only act on a man’s plumbing, not his brain. They dilate the arteries taking blood to the penis, and most men find they improve erections. But they don’t have any impact on our brains. Men whose erections are impaired by anxiety or low desire often find that Viagra has no effect on them. Kisspeptin, however, appears to improve sexual arousal from the brain downwards.
In 2017, researchers at Imperial College London gave 29 guys kisspeptin intravenously and found the hormone boosted the brain’s response to pictures of couples in sexual or romantic situations. Brain scans showed enhanced activity in regions stimulated by sexual arousal, romance, maternal love, and even unconditional love.
Depression and anxiety are common experience among men experiencing ED and low desire. They get anxious around performance, and more prone to self-monitoring and introspection – all of which reduce desire further. While kisspeptin did not generate positive mood in the trial participants, it reduced negative mood and stimulated feelings of romance and intimacy. It appears that kisspeptin restores some balance to our sexual brain chemistry, reducing negative thoughts and feelings, and enabling men to get back in touch with the primal urge to have sex.
A further trial in 2023 involved men experiencing low sexual desire due to low testosterone, a condition known as Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). Compared to those men given the control placebo, men given kisspeptin displayed greater arousal, higher levels of sexual desire, more sexual thoughts, and erections that were over 50% improved compared to the men on the placebo. However, we are still a long way from kisspeptin turbocharging men’s erections.
Kisspeptin is not licensed for medical use anywhere at this point. You won’t be able to get it from the pharmacy or your GP. Furthermore, while the trials indicated that participants could tolerate the drug and that there are no apparent side effects, there is no data yet on the long-term impacts of kisspeptin use. Taking kisspeptin changes the fine balance of hormones in your brain and body, and there might be serious long-term consequences to that.
Data on how much and how often to take kisspeptin is also lacking. However, a reputable urologist in New Zealand, Dr Simon Snook, (who makes clear that this drug remains in research and is used at your own risk), has put together a helpful and informative YouTube video giving guidance on dosage, frequency, and how to safely prepare and inject the peptide (see link below).
As Snook points out, one big problem with kisspeptin is that its efficacy reduces sharply the more your body gets used to it. Until the researchers can synthesise an analogous peptide that stays longer in your body, kisspeptin looks like a short-term fix at best.
There are also practical issues to bringing kisspeptin to market. Most of the trials have delivered kisspeptin into the body by intravenous drip. However, most current users of kisspeptin are injecting it. For a medication to be marketable it needs to be easy to take, either as a tablet or as a nasal spray. Right now, that’s not the case with kisspeptin.
And then there’s the cost. You can source kisspeptin from peptide producers for around £100 for 10mg. According to Dr Snook, a man weighing a 100kg will need about 1mg of kisspeptin per injection. So that’s £10 a pop, which is a lot more than the blue pill. And you will have to keep taking it and coping with the loss of effectiveness the more you use it.
However, the main reason for recommending that you don’t use kisspeptin to treat ED, is that specialist psychosexual therapy costs around £80 an hour, and based on my own experience, most men are fixed in less than a dozen sessions. And that’s a permanent fix with no ongoing need for medication. Given the risks of taking kisspeptin, a few months of therapy seems a much a safer and cheaper choice.
Finally, there’s the commercial politics of “Big Pharma”, particularly companies that make a lot of money out of existing ED treatments. They are unlikely to be encouraging research into a new drug that has the potential not just to fix erections, but also make you feel sexy and open to intimacy.
My conclusion is that kisspeptin is promising as a cure for ED, but it’s probably going to be of most value to men with very low testosterone or HSDD. At present, this group of men is the focus of the trials. For men with ED whose testosterone is normal, and that covers most cases of ED caused by anxiety, kisspeptin seems unlikely to be as quick, effective or as long term a fix as psychosexual therapy. Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I! Kisspeptin.