Melanotan 1 user experiences: what users themselves report
Users’ own accounts, not research. The accounts are self-selected and prove neither that it works nor that it is safe.
This page does not list users’ doses or sellers, and no figure on it is a recommendation. Doses used in studies, with sources: Melanotan 1 dosage in studies.
In short
Of 77 people, 35 (45%) said Melanotan 1 brought some benefit and 43 (56%) some harm.
- An AI model read and classified 300 public Reddit posts one by one, following written instructions. 91 were first-hand accounts, from 77 different people.
- Benefits mentioned most often: tan (32, 42%) and less sunburn (4, 5%).
- Harms mentioned most often: flushing (18, 23%), nausea or vomiting (12, 16%) and uneven or unwanted darkening (freckles, face, lips) (11, 14%). In addition, 14 (18%) described some other, rarer harm. People tend to post when something goes wrong, so this share does not tell how common harms are.
- In the accounts melanotan 1 gets mixed up with melanotan II: 73 of 91 accounts came from the melanotan II users' forum, and several writers themselves suspected that the product sold as melanotan 1 was in fact melanotan II. The approved afamelanotide implant (Scenesse) was not mentioned in a single account.
- The accounts cannot separate the substance from placebo or other causes. What the research shows: Melanotan 1: what the research shows.
Where the accounts come from and how we read them
Sources: the Reddit forums r/Melanotan2 (73 accounts), r/Peptides (15) and r/Biohackers (3), 11 Jan 2025 to 11 Oct 2026. The posts were retrieved from a public Reddit archive. From first-person posts about Melanotan 1, 300 were picked at random, and every one was read.
Coding: for each account we recorded the route, reported benefits and harms, how strong a harm was, whether and why the person stopped, length of use and other substances used at the same time. We kept accounts that reported some effect, some harm, or no effect. Questions and plans were left out. A harm was recorded when the person reported it during use, even if the cause was uncertain. Several posts by one person count as one person. One person can mention several things, so the shares in the tables do not add up to 100.
Check: an AI model read and classified the posts following written instructions. A second, separate AI run classified a random tenth (30 posts) again without seeing the first classification. The main fields matched: 27/30 (90%).
Whose accounts these are: routes mentioned: injection 34, nasal spray 2; the others did not say. The figures describe the writers and are not a recommendation. The products were not verified, so we do not know what people actually took.
Did Melanotan 1 help? The overall picture
Of 77 people, 20 (26%) reported benefit only, 15 (19%) both benefit and harm, 28 (36%) harm only and 14 (18%) neither.
Stopping. 8 people (10%) said they stopped or paused: 3 because of harms and 5 because they noticed no effect or for another reason.
| Overall picture: benefit, harm or neither | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Benefit only | 20 | 26% |
| Both benefit and harm | 15 | 19% |
| Harm only | 28 | 36% |
| Neither benefit nor harm | 14 | 18% |
Most common reported benefits
Of 77 people. 35 (45%) mentioned some benefit; the table lists every benefit reported.
| Reported | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tan | 32 | 42% |
| Less sunburn | 4 | 5% |
| Other benefit | 1 | 1% |
Share = people / 77.
Most common reported harms
Of 77 people. 43 (56%) mentioned some harm; 6 said explicitly they had none.
| Reported | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Flushing | 18 | 23% |
| Nausea or vomiting | 12 | 16% |
| Uneven or unwanted darkening (freckles, face, lips) | 11 | 14% |
| Mole changes or new moles | 7 | 9% |
| Heart or blood pressure | 3 | 4% |
| Injection-site reaction | 3 | 4% |
| Fatigue | 2 | 3% |
| Headache | 2 | 3% |
| Other, rarer harm | 14 | 18% |
Share = people / 77.
How severe were the harms?
Of the 43 people who described how strong a harm was, 27 (63%) described it as mild, 16 (37%) as clearly bothersome and 0 (0%) as severe. The strength is the writer's own description, not a doctor's assessment.
| Strength of the harm as the writer described it | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mild: minor and manageable | 27 | 63% |
| Clearly bothersome: several days, sleep or work affected | 16 | 37% |
| Severe: emergency visit, hospital or unable to function | 0 | 0% |
Harms known from research and regulators: What are the side effects of melanotan 1?
How long did people use Melanotan 1?
55 of 77 people (71%) said how long they had been using it at the time of writing. Where one person wrote several posts, the longest stated time counts.
| Stated length of use | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under a week | 15 | 27% |
| 1-4 weeks | 24 | 44% |
| 1-3 months | 12 | 22% |
| Over 3 months | 4 | 7% |
Many people post partway through, often in the first days or as soon as harms start, so short times are over-represented. The numbers describe the writers; they do not say how long it should be used.
Other substances at the same time
6 of 77 people (8%) used other substances at the same time. The most common: melanotan II (3), GHK-Cu (2) and retatrutide (2). Then the account cannot tell which substance had the effect.
Melanotan 1 or melanotan II?
Most accounts (73 of 91) came from r/Melanotan2. Many melanotan 1 users had used melanotan II before or moved to it later. Accounts about melanotan II only were left out, and where a writer used both at the same time it shows in the other-substances figures.
Several writers suspected that the product sold as melanotan 1 was in fact melanotan II, and the accounts cannot settle that. Melanotan II users' accounts have their own page: Melanotan II user experiences.
About dosing
We do not repeat the amounts or ways of use people mention, and we give no dosing or how-to instructions. A safe dose is not known. Doses used in studies, with sources: Melanotan 1 dosage: the approved product and studies. Legal status: Is melanotan 1 legal in Finland?
What can be concluded?
A tan was the most common reported benefit, and flushing and nausea the most common harms. Because many suspected their product was melanotan II, the accounts cannot tell what substance people actually used.
The accounts prove neither that it works nor that it is safe. The writers are self-selected, the product contents are unknown, many used several substances at once, and placebo effects can be large. The research and its evidence levels: Melanotan 1: what the research shows.
Quotes
Short excerpts in the writers’ own words. Writers’ names and links are not shown. We picked quotes from every group: benefit, both benefit and harm, no effect, harms and people who stopped.
-
"I have now achieved the tan I want and am just maintaining but am super satisfied."
r/Melanotan2, 2026-07, Route not stated, about three months of use. The office-working writer reached the tan they wanted and is now maintaining it.
-
"I've also had no noticeable sides, aside from some flushing for around 1-2 hours after pinning, which is very manageable."
r/Peptides, 2026-04, Injected for about eight weeks. The writer got the best tan of their life; the only harm was flushing after injecting, the most common harm reported in the sample.
-
"I'm about 10 days into MT1 noticing nothing."
r/Melanotan2, 2026-07, Injected for about ten days, going into the sun right after. No tan had appeared yet.
-
"I got an initial rush of nausea off and on for about 30 minutes, as well as a light facial flush, & now I feel fine."
r/Melanotan2, 2026-06, First injection, written about an hour afterwards. Nausea and facial flushing passed on their own.
-
"I get flushed and my freckles/moles darken but basically no difference in my color?"
r/Melanotan2, 2026-07, Route not stated, about six weeks of use. The very fair writer got flushing and darker freckles and moles but hardly any tan.
-
"I could barely tell a difference aside from the fact that I wasn't burning in situations where I normally would have."
r/Melanotan2, 2025-08, Injected for about a month. Little tan appeared, but sunburn was reduced. The writer then switched to Melanotan 2.
Other summaries made with the same method: BPC-157 user experiences, GHK-Cu user experiences, Melanotan II user experiences, Glutathione user experiences, GLOW blend user experiences, KLOW blend user experiences and user experiences with collagen and skin peptides.
Content is general information about research, not medical advice. If you have symptoms, contact a healthcare professional.