Peptifact

Kisspeptin Dosage: A Full Human Record, in Units No Vial Label Uses

Kisspeptin has been given to humans in dozens of published studies, with doses stated precisely. Every one of them is in nanomoles per kilogram, delivered by infusion pump or weight-scaled injection in a hospital — and the vials sold as research material are labelled in milligrams.

Robert F · Edited by Caroline S · Published 2026-09-14

Illustration: A precision scale with a clear glass vial of lyophilized powder on a cool grey lab bench.
Illustration

Most compounds in this cluster have the same problem: a market full of specific numbers and a literature that contains none of them. Kisspeptin has the opposite problem, and it is more interesting.

The human dose record for kisspeptin is large, well conducted and precisely published. Imperial College London has run infusion studies in healthy volunteers, in women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea, in women undergoing IVF, in postmenopausal women, in older men, and in patients with hypoactive sexual desire disorder. The doses are stated to two decimal places. Trial registrations exist. The papers are in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, JAMA Network Open and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

And none of it translates to a vial.

This page reports what those studies administered, with the dates and registrations, and then states plainly why the figures are not the kind of figures a label can carry. It is attributed journalism about a research record. It is not advice, it does not recommend anything, and no figure below is offered as one a reader should use.

Two molecules, one name

Before any number means anything, the name has to be resolved.

Kisspeptin-54 is described in the clinical literature as the major circulating isoform of kisspeptin in humans. It is what the Imperial group used in most of its work.

Kisspeptin-10 is the shorter C-terminal fragment. It is the form most commonly offered as research material, and it is the form used in the most recent published protocol.

They are not interchangeable in a dose calculation. They differ in length, in molecular weight and — as the 2026 study's own design implies — in the administration schedule needed to sustain an effect. A figure established for one is not a figure for the other.

There is a third name that appears in the same search results. MVT-602 is a kisspeptin receptor agonist, a separate drug candidate acting at the same receptor, studied and published separately. Its doses describe MVT-602.

What the published human studies administered

Study population Form Route Dose as published Source
53 women undergoing IVF Kisspeptin-54 Single subcutaneous injection 1.6 nmol/kg (n=2), 3.2 (n=3), 6.4 (n=24), 12.8 (n=24); eggs retrieved 36 h later J Clin Invest 2014;124(8):3667–77 · NCT01667406
32 women with HSDD Kisspeptin-54 Intravenous infusion 1 nmol/kg/h for 75 minutes JAMA Netw Open 2022;5(10):e2236131
Men with HSDD Kisspeptin-54 Intravenous infusion 1 nmol/kg/h for 75 minutes JAMA Netw Open 2023;6(2)
5 women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea Kisspeptin-54 Continuous intravenous infusion 0.01, 0.03, 0.10, 0.30, 1.00 nmol/kg/h J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2014;99(6)
15 healthy men Kisspeptin-10 Subcutaneous, acute 1.25–10.0 nmol/kg/h over 8 h Eur J Endocrinol 2026;195(2):206–16
15 healthy men Kisspeptin-10 Subcutaneous, chronic 180 nmol/h continuous for 5 days; 150 nmol/h for 8 h daily for 12 days; 1 nmol/kg bolus Eur J Endocrinol 2026;195(2):206–16

Read the third column downward. There is no entry that is a quantity on its own. Every figure is either a rate per kilogram per hour, a rate per hour attached to a stated number of hours, or a bolus scaled to body weight — and in the single-injection study, the one entry that looks closest to a fixed dose, the quantity is still per kilogram and the outcome was measured 36 hours later in a clinic.

The unit problem, stated exactly

A vial label carries a mass: so many milligrams of powder. The published record carries nanomoles per kilogram per hour.

Getting from one to the other needs three things the label does not have and the study does supply:

  1. A body weight, because the dose is per kilogram.
  2. A duration, because most of the figures are rates. A rate of 1 nmol/kg/h means nothing without the 75 minutes attached to it in the source.
  3. A molecular weight, to convert nanomoles to milligrams — and it is different for kisspeptin-54 and kisspeptin-10, so the conversion changes depending on which molecule is in the vial.

There is a fourth thing, and it is not arithmetic. Two of the three chronic arms in the 2026 study were delivered by infusion pump — 180 nmol/h continuously for five days, 150 nmol/h for eight hours a day for twelve. A pump is part of the protocol, not an accessory to it. The finding below depends on it.

This page does not perform that conversion for any of the rows above, and the omission is deliberate. Publishing a milligram figure would mean inventing three of the four inputs and presenting the result as though it came from the study. It did not come from the study; nothing in the literature states it.

The most useful finding is about schedule, not quantity

The August 2026 paper in the European Journal of Endocrinology set out to develop a protocol for chronic kisspeptin administration that keeps working. It tested three things in sequence, and the middle one failed in an informative way.

Acute eight-hour subcutaneous infusions across 1.25 to 10.0 nmol/kg/h raised luteinising hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone and testosterone dose-dependently against vehicle.

Then five days of continuous infusion at 180 nmol/h. Testosterone stayed up. Gonadotropins did not — the paper reports them as "similar to vehicle".

Then daily intermittent infusion, eight hours on and sixteen off, at 150 nmol/h for twelve days. That sustained the gonadotropin rise: a mean LH increase of +1.68 on day 1 and +1.14 on day 12, against −0.16 for vehicle, P = 0.003. Afterwards the authors gave a 1 nmol/kg bolus and still saw a response, which they read as showing the receptor remained functional.

The practical content of that result is not a number. It is that a compound acting on this axis can be given continuously and stop producing the effect it was given for, while a second marker keeps moving — so a claim resting on one hormone staying elevated is not evidence the intended mechanism is still running. The study was designed to find that, and found it in four healthy men in the continuous arm.

The sample sizes are small throughout: seven, four and seven across the three studies, with twelve controls.

What is not established

There is no approved product. FDA's Drugs@FDA application database returned no matching record for kisspeptin, and DailyMed returned no labels — both queried on 14 September 2026. There is no approved indication, no approved labelling and therefore no label-derived dose anywhere in the US record.

There is no published dose for use outside a clinic. Every protocol above involved intravenous or subcutaneous administration under supervision, most of it by pump, with blood sampling as the outcome measure. Nothing in the retrieved literature describes self-administration, and no source states a dose for it.

The conflict-of-interest statements are worth reading rather than skipping. The 2026 paper discloses that two of its authors have conducted consultancy work for named companies outside the submitted work — Myovant Sciences for one, and AbCellera, KaNDy Therapeutics and Myovant for the other. That is disclosed, ordinary and does not undermine the work; it is also the kind of line that is checkable and is almost never checked.

The 2025 anxiety paper is a negative result and should be reported as one. Kisspeptin Administration Stimulates Reproductive Hormones but Does Not Affect Anxiety in Humans, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, records the hormone effect and the absence of the psychological one in the same title.

Where kisspeptin sits in FDA's compounding record

Kisspeptin-10 appears in FDA's category 2 table of bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks when used in compounding, listed under section 503A only. It does not appear under 503B.

That asymmetry is not a finding about the molecule. The two sections run separate nomination processes, so a substance can be restricted under one and absent from the other simply because nobody nominated it there. Absence is not clearance. The mechanics of that are set out on FDA's category 2 list, indexed, and the distinction between the two sections on 503A vs 503B.

What a reader can check in ten minutes

Open the IVF paper (PMID 25036713) and read the methods paragraph. Note that the dose is per kilogram, that it follows superovulation with recombinant FSH and a GnRH antagonist, and that the outcome was egg maturation assessed after transvaginal retrieval. Then ask what part of that protocol a vial reproduces.

Then open the 2026 paper (DOI 10.1093/ejendo/lvag134) and read the three arms in order. The continuous arm is the one to read twice.

Sources and dates

All PubMed records retrieved via NCBI E-utilities and read on 14 September 2026.

  • Jayasena CN, Abbara A, Comninos AN, et al. Kisspeptin-54 triggers egg maturation in women undergoing in vitro fertilization. J Clin Invest. 2014;124(8):3667–77. DOI 10.1172/JCI75730. PMID 25036713. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01667406.
  • Yeung AC, Phylactou M, Koysombat K, et al. Chronic subcutaneous kisspeptin-10 stimulates gonadotropin secretion for 12 days in healthy men. Eur J Endocrinol. 2026;195(2):206–16. DOI 10.1093/ejendo/lvag134. PMID 42549827.
  • Thurston L, Hunjan T, Ertl N, et al. Effects of Kisspeptin Administration in Women With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(10):e2236131. PMID 36287566.
  • Effects of Kisspeptin on Sexual Brain Processing and Penile Tumescence in Men With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2023. PMID 36735255.
  • Increasing LH pulsatility in women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea using intravenous infusion of Kisspeptin-54. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014. PMID 24517142.
  • Subcutaneous infusion of kisspeptin-54 stimulates gonadotrophin release in women. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2016. PMID 26572695.
  • Endocrine profile of the kisspeptin receptor agonist MVT-602 in healthy premenopausal women. Fertil Steril. 2024. PMID 37925096.
  • Kisspeptin Administration Stimulates Reproductive Hormones but Does Not Affect Anxiety in Humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2025. PMID 40036336.
  • openFDA Drugs@FDA endpoint and DailyMed SPL service, queried for kisspeptin on 14 September 2026. Both returned zero records.
  • FDA, Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding That May Present Significant Safety Risks. Content current as of 22 April 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What dose of kisspeptin has been given to humans?

Many, and they are precisely published. The IVF trigger study used single subcutaneous kisspeptin-54 injections at 1.6, 3.2, 6.4 and 12.8 nmol/kg. The sexual-desire trials used intravenous kisspeptin-54 at 1 nmol/kg/h for 75 minutes. The hypothalamic amenorrhoea study ranged from 0.01 to 1.00 nmol/kg/h by continuous infusion. The 2026 healthy-men protocol used subcutaneous kisspeptin-10 at 1.25 to 10.0 nmol/kg/h acutely, and 150 to 180 nmol/h for the chronic arms. Every figure is a rate or a weight-scaled quantity, and every one was delivered under clinical supervision.

How do the trial doses convert to milligrams in a vial?

They do not convert cleanly, and that is the central practical fact about this compound. The published figures are nanomoles per kilogram per hour — a rate that depends on the recipient's weight and on the duration of an infusion — while a vial is labelled as a fixed mass. Converting a rate to a mass requires a duration and a body weight that the published protocol supplies and a vial label does not. A further step is needed to convert nanomoles to milligrams, and it differs between kisspeptin-54 and kisspeptin-10 because they are different molecules with different molecular weights. This page reports what the studies administered; it does not perform that arithmetic.

Is kisspeptin-10 the same as kisspeptin-54?

No. Kisspeptin-54 is described in the literature as the major circulating isoform in humans, and it is the form used in most of the clinical work — the IVF trigger, the sexual-desire trials, the amenorrhoea infusions. Kisspeptin-10 is the shorter C-terminal fragment, and it is the form most often sold as research material. The 2026 European Journal of Endocrinology study is notable partly because it worked with kisspeptin-10 rather than -54. Treating a kisspeptin-54 figure as a kisspeptin-10 figure is a substitution the literature does not support.

Is kisspeptin approved as a medicine?

Not in the United States. A search of FDA's Drugs@FDA application database returned no matching record, and the DailyMed label repository returned no labels, both run on 14 September 2026. There is therefore no approved labelling, no approved indication and no label-derived dose. Every figure in this page comes from a published investigational protocol.

Does continuous kisspeptin keep working?

The one study that tested this directly found it did not, in the outcome it was measuring. In the 2026 healthy-men protocol, five days of continuous subcutaneous kisspeptin-10 left testosterone elevated but gonadotropin concentrations similar to vehicle. Sustained gonadotropin release was achieved instead with daily 8-hour infusions over 12 days, and the authors confirmed the receptor was still functional afterwards by giving a 1 nmol/kg bolus and observing a response. The finding is about schedule, not quantity.

What is kisspeptin's status on FDA's compounding lists?

Kisspeptin-10 appears in FDA's category 2 table of bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks in compounding, and it is listed under section 503A only — not under 503B. Category 2 means FDA has identified significant safety risks relating to the substance's use in compounding, pending further evaluation. It is a compounding classification, not a schedule or a ban, and absence from the 503B section is not a clearance there, because the two sections run separate nomination processes.

Is MVT-602 a kisspeptin dose?

No. MVT-602 is a kisspeptin receptor agonist — a separate molecule acting on the same receptor, with its own pharmacokinetics and its own dose range, studied in premenopausal women with and without ovarian stimulation and published in Fertility and Sterility in 2024. Its figures describe MVT-602. Citing them as kisspeptin doses conflates a drug candidate with the endogenous peptide it was designed to imitate.