How long does Kisspeptin stay in your system?
Kisspeptin has a published half-life of 27.6 ± 1.1 minutes (kisspeptin-54). By the standard pharmacology rule of thumb, a drug is about 97% eliminated after roughly five half-lives, which here works out to about 2.3 hours. That value is for kisspeptin-54; no human half-life has been published for kisspeptin-10.
Source: Dhillo et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2005 (PMID 16174713) · Peer-reviewed · measured: intravenous infusion · dataset reviewed September 23, 2026
What is the half-life of Kisspeptin?
Kisspeptin's published half-life of 27.6 ± 1.1 minutes comes from a 2005 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, measured during intravenous infusion. The value is for kisspeptin-54, the longest of the kisspeptin fragments.
Kisspeptin is a family rather than one molecule. Its members are cut from the same precursor, encoded by the KISS1 gene, and named for their length. They share the active C-terminal end but differ in size, and size can change how a peptide is handled and cleared, so a figure for one fragment cannot simply be assigned to another.
How much Kisspeptin is left after each half-life?
Each half-life removes half of whatever is left, so the percentages are pure arithmetic and the same for any compound; only the clock changes. For Kisspeptin, one half-life is 27.6 minutes. The rows below run that forward for a single amount with nothing added.
| Half-lives elapsed | Time elapsed | Remaining | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27.6 minutes | 50% | 50% |
| 2 | 55.2 minutes | 25% | 75% |
| 3 | 82.8 minutes | 12.5% | 87.5% |
| 4 | 1.84 hours | 6.25% | 93.75% |
| 5 | 2.3 hours | 3.13% | 96.88% |
| 6 | 2.76 hours | 1.56% | 98.44% |
| 7 | 3.22 hours | 0.78% | 99.22% |
Why do the numbers differ between sources?
The figure most often quoted for kisspeptin-10 is around 4 minutes. It was measured in male mice. No human half-life has been published for kisspeptin-10, so wherever that number appears without the qualification, a mouse value is standing in for a human one.
Kisspeptin-54 and kisspeptin-10 are often discussed interchangeably, and that is where most of the confusion starts. The 27.6 minute human value is solid for the longer fragment and silent on the shorter one.
What does a half-life not tell you?
Kisspeptin works by stimulating GnRH neurons in the hypothalamus, which then drive pituitary LH and FSH. The LH response it triggers and the sex hormones produced downstream all outlast the peptide itself and run on their own timescales.
It is also an endogenous peptide, so levels return to your own baseline rather than to zero. And kisspeptin has no FDA-approved product; human use has been within research protocols, which is where its pharmacokinetic data comes from.
Can you run the numbers yourself?
The estimator applies the same decay arithmetic to any half-life, starting amount and time you enter. It opens with Kisspeptin's published value loaded. Type another figure to see how sensitive the result is to it.
Published value: 27.6 ± 1.1 minutes (kisspeptin-54) (Intravenous infusion) · Dhillo et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2005 (PMID 16174713) · Compound profile
Show the math
What are the limits of this estimate?
Everything above is a single-compartment approximation: one pool of drug, falling by the same fraction in every interval. Real elimination varies with kidney and liver function, body composition, formulation and route, and a published figure describes only the route and the people it was measured in. Many compounds also show a fast distribution phase before the slower elimination the table describes.
A half-life is not a dosing schedule. Labelled intervals come from clinical trials that measured outcomes and tolerability, and nothing on this page suggests when to take, repeat or stop anything. Whether Kisspeptin is out of your system for drug-testing purposes is a different question again. Tests often look for metabolites rather than the parent compound, and the answer depends on the assay, its sensitivity and the sample type, none of which a plasma half-life captures.
FAQ.
What is the half-life of kisspeptin-10?
No human half-life has been published for kisspeptin-10. The 4 minute figure often quoted for it was measured in male mice. The human value on this page, 27.6 ± 1.1 minutes, is for kisspeptin-54.
Is kisspeptin naturally produced in the body?
Yes. Kisspeptins are cleaved from a precursor protein encoded by the KISS1 gene and act on KISS1R receptors on GnRH neurons. After an infusion, levels decline toward your own baseline, not to zero.
Why does kisspeptin's effect outlast its half-life?
Because kisspeptin sits at the top of a hormonal cascade. It stimulates GnRH release, which drives the pituitary to release LH and FSH, which in turn act on the gonads. Each step has its own kinetics, and the peptide's half-life describes only the first.
For what the evidence on Kisspeptin actually shows, read the Kisspeptin profile. For approval and regulatory position, see is Kisspeptin legal. The half-life reference lists every sourced value side by side, including the compounds where a number circulates online with no reliable human data behind it.