Peptides for sexual health.

Sexual health peptides are unusual in that the category's headline compound actually cleared the FDA. Bremelanotide, sold as Vyleesi, is approved for hypoactive sexual desire disorder in premenopausal women, and it works through the melanocortin system rather than the vascular mechanism most people associate with sexual function drugs. That distinction matters: it acts on pathways in the brain related to desire, not on blood flow.

That approved status is frequently borrowed by adjacent compounds. Melanotan II shares the melanocortin mechanism and is widely sold, but it is not approved anywhere and its reputation rests on the same receptor family rather than on its own trial evidence. Sharing a mechanism with an approved drug is a reason to investigate a compound, not evidence that it is safe or effective.

The other genuinely approved compounds here work through the reproductive hormone axis rather than directly on desire. Gonadorelin is synthetic GnRH, the hypothalamic signal that drives the entire reproductive cascade, and HCG mimics luteinizing hormone. Both have decades of documented clinical use for fertility and specific endocrine indications. Their use alongside testosterone therapy to preserve testicular function is common in practice and considerably less well studied than their approved indications.

One pharmacological detail in this category is genuinely counterintuitive and worth understanding. GnRH signalling depends on the pattern of delivery, not just the amount: pulsed, intermittent exposure stimulates the axis, while continuous exposure shuts it down. This is why the same receptor target is used both to restore fertility and, with long-acting agonists, to suppress hormone production entirely in prostate cancer treatment.