First experience with PT-141 (Bremelanotide)
(My apologies, this is a repost, I accidentally posted the first version with my "real" reddit user, and I kinda want to keep this more confidential, so am reposting with a username specific for this purpose)
Background
Since starting Finasteride approx. 3 weeks ago I have lost "morning wood" and "night wood" both of which had been constant companions of mine since puberty. The loss of night time tumescence was worrying to me as a potential "canary in the coal mine" for other libido/ED problems (which AFAIK I have not had but with very few data points to sample, I can't be sure). I decided to research to see if there is anything that can help bring back night time tumescence and also possibly act as an aid should I end up with low libido/ED. Internet searching led me to PT-141 (Bremelanotide).
Myself
52 year old single white male, nonsmoker, nondrinker, non-recreational-drug user, 5'11" tall, 180 lbs. No history of low libido/ED although it can be hard to tell since with age these things decline naturally anyway. I have never used Viagra/Cialis or any other erectile aid. I am in a potentially somewhat unique position to evaluate these issues given that I am a regular customer at an AMP that can service my needs on short notice whenever I desire between 10 am and 10 pm. I expected to use these services in conjunction with PT-141 to "experiment" and gather evidence for the effectiveness of PT-141. I am not a medical professional and have no training that would be relevant to this experimentation; I'm just a guy on the internet using common sense, reasoning, and Google search research techniques; so be very skeptical of what I say and definitely use your own judgement when deciding if anything I say sounds rational. Obviously none of this is intended to be medical advice, it's just a log of my personal experiences.
Goals
Identify the effectiveness of PT-141, and if effective, try to find the most convenient way to administer the drug for the most beneficial and consistent results.
Investigate ways to minimize side effects.
Determine whether PT-141 can be administered twice per week without negative consequences both during the remainder of the week, and also when stopping use of PT-141 altogether.
Hypothesis
I believe that the reason that many people become nauseous when using PT-141 is due to a too-sudden flooding of the peptide into their system. Having had experience with "VR sickess" I have learned that the brain has ways to detect when there is a potential external factor at work, and induce nausea to try to clear it (in the VR sickness case, the mismatch of visual and kinesthetic sensations lead the brain to nausea as a way to clear potential poisons which might have been ingested and responsible for the mismatched stimuli). So I hypothesize that when the brain experiences the rapid onset of a chemical imbalance (in the case of PT-141, a flood of neuroactive peptides into the brain), it reacts similarly and induces nausea as a protective measure. If this hypothesis is correct, then I surmise that a slow and gradual buildup of Bremelanotide in the brain may reduce or eliminate nausea.
I hypothesize that much of the difference in experience with PT-141 as reported among users is due to the differing ways of delivering the drug. Reports are almost always completely unclear on the method of delivery, and often the dosage as well. The most controllable method of delivery (subcutaneous injections) is likely to lead to the best outcomes as it can be most precisely controlled.
Plan
In order to minimize the chance of nausea and to allow myself to ascertain whether or not there were any adverse effects on my body from PT-141, I planned to dose 0.75 grams subcutaneously, and then, assuming no adverse effects had occurred, an hour later dose another 0.75 grams subcutaneously. This would be a relatively small cumulative dose of 1.5 grams. In addition, I would drink ginger tea and eat ginger candies in an attempt to use ginger to prevent any potential nausea. I expected the drug to either work within a few hours, or not work at all; and if it did work, to continue working for up to 24 hours. This experience would match what seemed like the most common experience of users of PT-141 according to my research.
Source
I purchased 5 vials of 10 mg pure Bremelanotide from Core Peptides. I did not choose overnight shipping (something I now regret having thought about the potential for degredation of the peptides in transit) so waited for the package to arrive, which took 3 days. The package arrived at approximately 11:30 am, and I began my experimentation at approximately 1 pm. Although this was my first time reconstituting peptide drugs, and also my first time self-administering drugs via injection, I found the overall process fairly easy thanks to helpful instructional videos on YouTube.
I used insulin syringes to inject the PT-141. These have 6mm 31G needles. I injected into slightly pinched belly fat at a 90 degree angle to the skin with the needle fully penetrating.
Timeline
2024.09.09
13:08: Drank 258g of Ginger infused water (unknown quantity of ginger)
13:13: Ate 4 Turmeric Gin-Gins (~4g ginger)
13:25: Injected 0.075 mL of PT-141 solution (0.75 mg)
-- no effect, other than slight face/neck flushing --
14:28: Injected 0.075 mL of PT-141 solution (0.75 mg) (cumulative 1.5 mg)
-- no effect, other than slight face/neck flushing --
14:30: Drank another glass of ginger infused water, ate 2 more Gin-Gins
15:28: Injected 0.050 mL of PT-141 solution (0.5 mg) (cumulative 2 mg)
-- no effect --
16:00: Still no obvious theraputic effect or significant side effects
16:28: Possible nocebo effect, but I feel like I want to stretch my legs frequently, and it feels good to do so
16:41: Spontaneous 70% erection. Sore lower back muscle on the side where the injections ocurred (left side). Erection did not last very long.
20:15: No further effects observed. Prior effect (at 16:41) is probably not attributable to the injections.
23:45: Some more spontaneous erections; and a tendency to daydream about sex. Placebo effect? Uncertain.
2024.09.10
00:00 - 00:30: Persistent strong erection and wandering thoughts of sex.
00:35: Masturbated; relatively strong orgasm with strong semen production.
00:40: After masturbation, penis became flaccid. Fell asleep.
02:30: Awoke with erection that was strong enough to be slightly uncomfortable. After 5 minutes erection reduced to semi-hard. But with the slightest touch it came back to full strength again.
02:40: With concentration could reduce erection but it seemed like its natural state was now a very hard erection. Managed to fall asleep.
07:25: Woke up with a semi erect penis and the vague memory of some erections while sleeping. Most effects appear to be gone.
Notes
I ended up injecting a full 2 mg (recommended dose) of PT-141 instead of the 1.5 mg I had planned to, because after two hours with no observable effects from the first two injections, I was impatient for results.
I had no nausea, headache, or any other significant side effect. Some muscle soreness in my back and minor face/neck flushing were the only side effects that I noted and both were very minor.
I had no "flu-like" feeling the day after the experiment. I felt as if nothing had happened.
It took about 10 hours from my first injection, and 8 hours from my third and last injection, for clearly noticeable effects to occur. This is longer than what most people report; most reports are in the 2 hours to 6 hours range, with a few people quoting longer times of up to a day.
The significant effects lasted only around 5 - 6 hours (assuming that they ended at some point during my final sleep phase), unlike others who have reported up to 24 hours of noticeable effects.
The erection at 16:41 was probably, although not definitely, unrelated to the drug. I found that repeatedly stretching and then releasing my leg muscles eventually led to a semi-erection; but maybe this was just due to blood flow resulting from stretching.
When the effects came on at 23:45, the physical change was obvious. I was by myself watching a non-erotic television show and this is not a situation in which a spontaneous erection would normally occur. In addition, the erection was unusually strong and unusually long-lived.
The erections from 23:45 to 02:40 were strong enough to be borderline uncomfortable. I felt a frequent urge to squeeze my Kegel muscles. But doing so "overpressurized" my penis making the erection momentarily even more uncomfortable.
I masturbated at 00:35 due to the duration and strength of my erection becoming a bit worrisome. I was hoping to relieve the pressure, and fortunately this did occur when my penis became flaccid soon after climax. The ejaculate was unusually strong and voluminous given the situation; it was "as if" I had spent an hour edging (which is my normal mode of masturbation) to achieve the same result, when instead I had approached this masturbation "completely cold".
Not mentioned in the timeline: at 21:00 I visited the AMP and spent an hour with a girl. All we did was talk and "cuddle" though, no sex was involved. However, I found that around 21:45, smelling her hair gave me a fairly strong erection. I was uncertain if this was due to the effects of the drug or if this was "normal" as it is certainly not outside of the realm of possibility for me for this to occur normally.
In addition, my shirt retained her smell and I didn't change my shirt before bed. When I woke up at 02:30 I found that her lingering smell on my shirt was keeping me hard. I could feel a strong sense of arousal just due to that smell. I had to change to a clean shirt before I was able to relax my mind and think nonsexual thoughts on the way to decreasing the erection strength down to a tolerable level so I could fall asleep again.
My original plan was to visit the AMP while the effects of PT-141 were in full swing; but unfortunately due to the considerably delayed onset of effects, I believe I missed most or all its effectiveness.
During the peak of the effects, I found thinking about sex and replaying sexual scenes in my mind very intruiging and at the same time highly arousing. I found myself wishing with a very strong urge that I could return to the AMP (but it was past closing time).
The strong arousal and persistent erections while by myself was not a great experience. Getting horny and hard for no reason isn't "fun".
Analysis
I believe that injecting three small doses three hours apart had the following effects:
a. Possibly delayed the onset of the effects. I say this because I theorize that a smaller amount of injected liquid takes a disproportionally long time to absorb into the bloodstream due to the smaller surface area of the volume of liquid having a smaller area of contact with blood vessels (or lesser osmosis; I am not entirely sure of the mechanism of drug delivery into the bloodstream from subcutaneous injection). So with the resulting slower delivery into the bloodstream of the drug, it may have taken longer for sufficient peptides to reach my brain.
b. Possibly stronger effects during the active period. I say this because three independent and separate injections should, at peak delivery of peptide into the bloodstream, total to a multiple of what a single injection would produce.
c. Possibly decreased the duration of the active period, for the same reason as (b).
d. Possibly reduced nausea during the injection period and for the few hours thereafter when many have nausea, due to the gradual ramp-up in peptide levels.
The libido increase was not proportionate with the erection strength and duration. I felt that my libido was increased slightly, but my libido's effect on my ability to have and sustain an erection was vastly higher.
Significantly stronger effect on erection would be very undesirable. It is hoped that a different delivery regimen might extend out the duration of the effects while decreasing the severity of the erections, with the added hope that libido is still raised a significant amount.
The most unsatisfying part of this experience was the unpredictable nature of the onset of effect. Not knowing when it would take effect makes scheduling/planning sexual experiences while on this peptide very difficult.
Future Plans
I plan to next try a two-dose regimen: two 1 mg doses one hour apart. Also I will dose early in the morning with the expectation that the effects will be available earlier in the day, thus allowing experimentation with actual sex during the effects.
I will continue to use ginger as a means to reduce the chance of nausea, although I don't know if it had anything to do with my lack of nausea in my first experience. Eventually once I have other parameters nailed down, I'll try injections with no anti-nausea component as a means to assess whether the ginger was necessary.