Kisspeptin-10

Origin and structure

Kisspeptin-10 is a chain of ten amino acids, Tyr-Asn-Trp-Asn-Ser-Phe-Gly-Leu-Arg-Phe-NH2, ending in an amide group that the receptor needs in order to respond. The KISS1 gene makes a precursor of 145 amino acids that is cut into kisspeptin-54, -14, -13 and -10. All of them end in these same ten amino acids, so kisspeptin-10 is the shortest natural form that still switches the receptor on. Papers and trial registries also call it kisspeptin 112-121 or metastin 45-54, after its position in the longer chains.

The gene was found in 1996 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, as a suppressor of melanoma metastasis, and named after the town's chocolate Kisses; the long form was first called metastin, after that anti-metastatic effect. Its peptides were then found to activate an orphan receptor, GPR54, now called KISS1R. The turn towards reproduction came in 2003, when two groups (de Roux et al. and Seminara et al.) showed that people with a faulty receptor fail to go through puberty. Seminara's group at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has since run most of the registered human studies of kisspeptin-10.

How it works

Kisspeptin-10 binds the kisspeptin receptor, KISS1R, on GnRH neurons in the hypothalamus. Those neurons release gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which makes the pituitary secrete luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH); these in turn drive testosterone in men and oestrogen and ovulation in women. Because it acts upstream of GnRH, it needs a working GnRH network: 11 adults with congenital hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, in whom that network never switched on, showed no LH response to it, which is why it is studied as a diagnostic test.

In the laboratory it binds the receptor more tightly than kisspeptin-54 (Ki 0.042 against 0.34 nM), but it is cleared from the blood within minutes: its terminal half-life is about 3 minutes, against about 28 minutes for kisspeptin-54. In men a single injection into a vein sets off an LH pulse straight away, and an infusion keeps LH raised for as long as it runs. Constant exposure can wear the response down: in monkeys, LH peaked 3 hours into a 98-hour infusion and had fallen away by 12 hours, and in dogs given a daily injection for 14 days the LH response was generally smaller on day 14 than on day 1.

Is kisspeptin-10 approved?

No. No kisspeptin product is authorised by the EMA or approved by the FDA, and none is registered in the Netherlands, so it may not be sold or promoted for use in people. It is available only as research material, which is the basis on which our shop sells it.

In the United States the question is pharmacy compounding. On 29 September 2023 the FDA placed kisspeptin-10 in Category 2 of the bulk substances nominated for compounding, for substances that may present significant safety risks. Its reasons: a possible risk of immune reactions for some routes, complexities with peptide impurities and characterisation of the active ingredient, and little or no safety information for the proposed routes. On 29 October 2024 the FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, asked whether kisspeptin-10 should be added to the list of substances that pharmacies may compound (for secondary hypogonadism in men), voted 11 to 0 against, citing a lack of convincing safety and efficacy data. Many other peptides on the Category 2 list, BPC-157 among them, have since been withdrawn by their nominators; kisspeptin-10 has not, and it was still in Category 2 when the FDA last updated the page in April 2026.

In sport, the WADA Prohibited List names kisspeptin and its agonist analogues in class S2.2.1, testosterone-stimulating peptides in males, next to hCG, LH and the GnRH analogues. They are prohibited at all times, in and out of competition, and have been on the list since 2024. The Dutch translation of the list by the Dopingautoriteit carries the same entry.

What the research shows

Kisspeptin-10 has been given to people in small studies that measure hormones over hours or days. ClinicalTrials.gov lists 18 registered studies of it (as kisspeptin-10, kisspeptin 112-121 or metastin 45-54), the first starting in 2009: 15 at Massachusetts General Hospital and 3 at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan. Twelve are completed, 3 are recruiting, 1 was terminated and 2 were withdrawn. None has tested it against placebo or standard care as a treatment for a clinical outcome.

Together they show that kisspeptin-10 quickly and reliably raises LH in men, and testosterone with it while it is being given, but less strongly than GnRH itself, and not in women early in the menstrual cycle. No published study has reported a lasting rise in testosterone, better fertility, or an effect on libido or body composition with kisspeptin-10.

• Healthy men (George et al., 2011): single injections into a vein raised LH in a dose-dependent way, most at 1 µg/kg (from 4.1 to 12.4 IU/L at 30 minutes), while 3 µg/kg gave a smaller rise. A 22.5-hour infusion raised LH from 5.4 to 20.8 IU/L and testosterone from 16.6 to 24.0 nmol/L in 4 men.
• Men and women compared (Jayasena et al., 2011): with 4 to 5 people per group, LH rose in men from 0.3 nmol/kg. Women in the follicular phase of the cycle showed no change in LH or FSH even at 10 nmol/kg into a vein, 32 nmol/kg under the skin or a continuous infusion; women just before ovulation did respond.
• Men with type 2 diabetes and low testosterone (George et al., 2013): 5 men and 7 healthy controls. An 11-hour infusion in 4 of the diabetic men raised LH from 3.9 to 20.7 IU/L and testosterone from 8.5 to 11.4 nmol/L. There was no placebo arm; the authors call it a proof-of-concept study.
• Head to head (Jayasena et al., 2015): 3-hour infusions in healthy men, 5 per dose group. Kisspeptin-10 and kisspeptin-54 raised LH and FSH by similar amounts, while GnRH raised them to levels about three times those seen with kisspeptin-10 and about twice those with kisspeptin-54.
• Delayed puberty (Chan et al., 2020): 16 children received a single kisspeptin-10 test dose. All 8 whose LH rose by 0.8 mIU/mL or more later went through puberty; all 8 with a rise of 0.4 or less reached 18 without doing so. It was a cohort of 16 at a single centre.
• Other conditions: hourly injections for 10 hours raised the number of LH pulses from 4.5 to 7.5 in 11 women with high prolactin (Hoskova et al., 2022). In a placebo-controlled crossover in 9 women (NCT04958109), glucose sensitivity was the same during a 16-hour infusion of kisspeptin-10 as on placebo.
• Under way: two-week courses of pulses under the skin by pump in 36 people with hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (phase 2, since February 2023, NCT05896293) and 20 women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea (phase 2, since December 2025, NCT07224438). A 13-person pilot of the same approach in women ended in August 2025 without posted results (NCT05633966).

Kisspeptin-10 versus kisspeptin-54

Much of what is written about 'kisspeptin' comes from studies of the 54-amino-acid form. Kisspeptin-54 lasts longer in the blood (a half-life of about 28 minutes against 3) and is the form behind the best-known results. As a trigger for egg maturation in IVF, a phase 2 trial gave it to 53 women and 51 produced at least one mature egg. In the brain-imaging studies on sex and mood, a 75-minute infusion changed activity in sexual-processing brain areas in 29 healthy men, in 32 women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) and in 32 men with the same condition, in whom it also increased penile tumescence to erotic videos by up to 56% more than placebo.

None of these findings has been shown for kisspeptin-10, and results cannot simply be carried from one form to the other: in the one head-to-head study equal molar infusions raised LH by similar amounts, but kisspeptin-10 leaves the blood roughly nine times faster. To get around the short half-life, longer-acting receptor agonists such as MVT-602 (formerly TAK-448) have been made; in a small study in women it kept LH raised far longer than kisspeptin-54, peaking at about 21 hours against about 5.

Frequently asked questions

Is kisspeptin-10 legal in the Netherlands?

It is not a registered medicine in the Netherlands or anywhere else, so it may not be sold, advertised or supplied for use in people. Buying and selling it as research material is a different status, which our guide on research-use-only products in the Netherlands explains. For male athletes under anti-doping rules it is prohibited regardless of how it was obtained.

Is kisspeptin-10 banned in sport?

Yes, for men, at all times, in and out of competition. Since 2024 the WADA Prohibited List has named kisspeptin and its agonist analogues in class S2.2.1, testosterone-stimulating peptides in males, the same class as hCG and the GnRH analogues, and the Dutch anti-doping rules apply the same list. In 2026 anti-doping researchers in Cologne published a method to detect kisspeptins and related peptides in blood and urine, though it still has to be checked on samples from people who were given them.

Does kisspeptin-10 raise testosterone?

In men, while it is being given. A 22.5-hour infusion into a vein raised testosterone from 16.6 to 24.0 nmol/L in 4 healthy men, and an 11-hour infusion raised it from 8.5 to 11.4 nmol/L in 4 men with type 2 diabetes and low testosterone. Both were tiny studies run in a clinical unit, and kisspeptin-10 is cleared within minutes. No published study has tested whether repeated injections under the skin raise testosterone over weeks.

What is the difference between kisspeptin-10 and kisspeptin-54?

Both are natural forms cut from the same precursor, and both act on the same receptor. Kisspeptin-54 is longer and stays in the blood longer (about 28 minutes against 3), and it is the form used in the IVF and sexual-desire trials. In a head-to-head study in healthy men, the two raised LH by similar amounts during an infusion, and GnRH itself raised it more than either. Results from one form cannot simply be carried over to the other.

Does kisspeptin-10 increase libido?

There is no evidence for kisspeptin-10. The studies on sexual desire used kisspeptin-54 as a single 75-minute infusion: it changed brain responses to erotic images in 29 healthy men and in 32 women and 32 men with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), and in those men it increased penile tumescence to erotic videos by up to 56% more than placebo. Those are short laboratory measurements, not proof of a lasting effect on libido, and they have not been repeated with kisspeptin-10.

Is kisspeptin-10 safe?

Only short-term data exist. People in studies received it for minutes up to two weeks; registry results list mainly headache, skin pain and fatigue, and in a small placebo-controlled study side effects were as frequent on placebo. No serious side effect has been attributed to it, but the animal toxicity data cover 14 days in dogs, there are no long-term data in people, and the FDA lists it among compounding substances with significant safety risks.

Storage and handling

Store according to product-label instructions and batch handling notes. Lyophilized research peptides are commonly kept dry, protected from light, and handled with clean laboratory technique.

References

Checked against these sources on 28 October 2026.

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