Is "Doctor Bremelanotide" a Quack?

Hmmm...

While scouring the net for some new information about Bremelanotide, I spotted what initially appeared to be an interesting inside source... a blog post by someone at Adison University claiming to have spoken with a woman "working now on a hormone called bremelanotide pheromone (code name PT141)". (that blog entry)

But, as anyone who really knows about Bremelanotide is aware... it isn't a hormone.

And THEN "she" apparently described it as "a very, very poweful pheromone". But no, it isn't a pheromone either!

D'uh - everyone knows Bremelanotide is a cyclic hepta-peptide lactam analog of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) that activates the melanocortin receptors MC3-R and MC4-R in the central nervous system... right? :)

Well, that was from wikipedia, but even so, I even know that it isn't a hormone or a pheremone - so you'd think a woman 'working on' Bremelanotide would know what it was. Or at least what it wasn't.

Oh yeah, and when the 'reporter/journalist'... asked about gay men and lesbians, this woman apparently said she "thinks it will raise their sexual interest level but the research has not been done yet" (emphasis added by me)... Again, an answer anyone familiar with Bremelanotide would know.

If it works on rat brains and 'straight brains', it's certainly going to work the same way on 'gay brains'. LOL - although I am aware of limited studies that seem to show there *is* a part of the brain that differs between straight and gay (men?). Not sure of the details, and as well results may be fuddled because the gay brain autopsies were done on AIDs victims iirc... but I digress...

And the clincher of the article came at the end, when the woman 'expert' said: "the secret of its chemistry has already leaked out and labs in other nations have begun making and selling bremelanotide (PT-141) as a perfume “fragrance."

True enough some shady websites are promising to create and mail out Bremelanotide - but I have yet to see any confirmed reports that the stuff works (and many would involve injecting their mysterious concoction, not snorting it). But more importantly, Bremelanotide is NOT a fragrance or perfume or otherwise anything you SMELL. It is a nasal mist like 'Dristan" - you snort it up your nose... you don't just smell it.

Geez there is a lot of disinformation on the net. Personally I only believe what I read in the press reports and on the Palatin Technologies website itself, along with the periodic summaries on the "Bremelanotide Bulletin". Or wikipedia, although the info there is very limited and very "dry".

But I'm still looking forward to Bremelanotide's release and hope it comes soon! :-)

Bremelanotide in ABC Nightline Article Online

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There's an article on the ABC News website about Bremelanotide. It's the page for their Nightline show, but I watch it sometimes and never saw it mentioned anywhere - hopefully the website article got posted first and the show will air sometime soon...

I just wrote a post on the ABC forum asking that question, so hopefully someone will answer and I can post the info here...

The article itself isn't really anything too new for me (since, like I probably mentioned before, I subscribe to the "Bremelanotide Bulletin") but there WAS a section that raised my hackles!

First they say about Bremelanotide:

If approved, it would be the first drug sold in the United States to specifically target lack of sexual desire in women. It's for those experiencing serious sexual problems — women who've gone through menopause or had a hysterectomy, for instance, and lost desire as a result.

Which is great! Sure it works on the guys too, and even seems to work on many men who don't get results from Viagra (and some test subjects say it works better than viagra), but the REALLY revolutionary thing about Bremelanotide is that it works on women... especially helpful for those experiencing FSD.

Oh, and I really liked this part.. :)

"Some of the women put it in colorful language that I'm not comfortable using on television," Perelman told ABC News' "Nightline."

Ha!

But then I see THIS...

But bremelanotide likely will encounter tough resistance on its way to receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration. One concern is abuse. Some young partyers have been known to mix Viagra with Ecstasy for recreational use.

Well yeah, but there are MANY drugs that get abused by recreational drug users/abusers, but they don't stop THOSE drugs from being sold. For that matter, kids are getting high on cough syrup that you don't even need a prescription for, and they're still on the store and pharmacy shelves...

And a sexual psychologist Leonore Tiefer (associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University's School of Medicine) said

"Certainly when the thing is first approved, I think it will be widely misused."

Apparently in 2004, she helped block FDA approval for the hormone patch Intrinsa, which was being touted as the female Viagra.

It doesn't say why she helped blog its approval... maybe she was afraid body builders would be using it to get more testosterone?

Then she said: "...women, couples, will somehow feel that if arousal, orgasm, desire, is not a regular routine, every day, every week, womb-to-tomb kind of thing that there is something wrong with you."

Again - so what?!

That hasn't stopped the women's magazines from printing photos on their covers of women with bodies that NO one can achieve (even the women themselves, since the magazines use photoshop and lighting along with makeup and every other trick in the book to create those pictures).

There will always be people who are insecure or otherwise fearing they don't live up to the ultimate benchmark - but should women suffering from FSD, and literally praying they'll some day be able to enjoy intimacy with their partner again, have to suffer further because of drug abusers and people who are too insecure to enjoy having sex naturally if they don't otherwise need some help along the way..?

Fortunately the CEO of Palatin Technologies (whose speech at a recent conference was summarized in the last newsletter post in that Bremelanotide Bulletin) tried to set them straight by stating;

"If women do go in with that message, their physician should clearly tell them that this is not what this is for," said Palatin CEO Spana. "It's for women who feel a real lack of desire, real lack of ability to get aroused."

And the Concordia Bremelanotide tester (Pfaus) also added:

"But I think that if the drug is available for people who actually have true desire disorders that are defined by a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist, then we're talking about a different group of people."

Exactly! It's ironic that two men are supporting treatment for Female Sexual Disorder, and a woman appears to be getting ready to ban its release !!

Granted the men qoted have a vested interest in its release, although less so Pfaus since he just tested it on a bunch of subsequently horny rats, but there are a LOT of women who could really benefit from Bremelanotide.

Make it available only with a prescription and you solve most of any perceived problems you can come up with. Sure there will be recreational use, just like Viagra... and morphine... and marijuana (which is prescribed for glaucoma and to some cancer patients to improve appetites), but they should make genuine suffers continue to suffer because of that.

So an interesting article (and hope I get to see the television version) but it also revealed at least one "shot across the bow" from someone or some movement intent on preventing FDA approval for Bremelanotide!

"Mind your own bees wax" is what I say! :)

The Dangers of Bremelanotide?

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Aha! That's where I saw it! :)

Yeah, I mentioned seeing a post by a woman who had some concerns about Bremelanotide and it turned out I saw it listed under blog posts on the front page at www.bremolanotide.com .

And actually there are two links there to posts with concerns about women being given Bremelanotide unknowningly... and I found another one here just now.

Feministing wrote about Bremolanotide a few months ago in a post called "Women's Viagra":

"Is it going to convince you that whomever you are sleeping with IS good in bed or some shit or make you forget that you never wanted to sleep with that person in the first place? So many questions...."

Ha ! WEll I know from reading the "Bremelanotide Bulletin" that that's not going to probably happen.. well, maybe she *would* enjoy it more that she would without Bremelanotide, because it would make her 'turned on' in general. But it isn't going to make a woman sleep with a guy you wouldn't want to sleep with without it. You'd probably find other ways to relieve yourself than that! LOL

And the other comments I saw from (interestingly) other women...

Night Owl Forever wrote:

"...what if some doofy little 15-year-old boy who's desperate to get laid decides to spray girls in the face with this stuff? "

LOL - yeah, that *would* be bad. But again, reading up about the PT141 trials and more recent testing phases with Bremelanotide, it's obvious you would have to lay down a think *fog* of this stuff in an enclosed room and have the girl breathe very deeply to *maybe* make this work! :) Plus I'd imagine it would be expensive as hell (this stuff probably won't be cheap for even a small dose directly up the nose).

And like I said before, even if the doofy 15 year old kid could convince the girl to snort some bremelanotide it's not gonna force her to make out with him (Hmm.. I wonder how this stuff would work on someone in puberty - since it kinda makes adults feel the same way they did as a horny teenager - or a pre-pubescent? Not that it should/would be used for such a thing, but it'd be an interested thing to consider vis a vis how that part of the brain works and develops... but I digress...) :)

And the Booman Tribune said:

"If a woman has sex with a man that she wouldn't normally let within 10 feet of her just because he slipped her a pill that made her horny, is that consent..?"

Like the other posts, this one was done before last summer when not as much was commonly known as now (or people were jumping to conclusions without looking at the actual details). After reading the Brem Bulletin - which last post has a picture of the dispenser used by people testing Bremelanotide - we know it isn't a pill but "snorted" like dristan nasal mist or something.

And I don't think someone would have sex with someone else they aren't attracted to because Bremelanotide made them horny, and more than they NORMALLY would if they were feeling horny *without* Bremelanotide! :) If you're that weak willed, then you'll sleep with the guy anyways.

Another interesting thing about the above blog entries is reading the comments. Granted most were written a few month ago, but I doubt the general public knows much about Bremelanotide or PT 141 now either... and a LOT of people seem to think it will be some new scary type of "date rape drug" that will leave a woman completely without control of her arousal. But based on what I've seen, that won't happen... but who knows for sure how much of an influence it MIGHT be to some women who agree to take a shot of it - whether they know what they're taking or not?

Anyways, if you want to keep uptodate on the latest news about Bremelanotide, check out the "Bremelanotide Bulletin". There's only an email newsletter every month or so (now), but it's a good way to stay educated. Which it seems a lot of scared people need. :)