An interesting thread over at the Rosacea Forum to do with the safety of taking melanotan. Steve, who is using Melanotan himself, points to a thread on a Melanotan message board where Robert is reporting some issues with gradual onset vision problems ;

My name is Robert, I’m 23 and I had been using MT 2 for over 1 year with great results. However, recently I got vision problems (with gradual onset) and thus went to see an ophthalmologist. I was diagnostized (sic) with a severe form of central serous retinopathy (CSR). Although CSR rarely leads to blindness, usually some vision impairment remains. There is no effective treatment for this condition.

She also found a rather big nevus (mole) on the choroid in my left eye which hasn’t been there before (have had an eye exam in the past). This cannot be removed and have to be monitored for the rest of my life because it may lead to cancer at some point. She had no idea regarding the cause. Apart from being a bit myopic, my eyes were perfectly healthy before. I didn’t tell her about Melanotan by the way.

A recent newspaper article asked the question melanotan: could it cause skin cancer ? As I mentioned in this article, caution is definitely required when trying new treatments, especially when they are available before being FDA approved.

I’d also like to see the question of whether stimulating the production of melanocytes (which then produces the melanin thus a tanned appearance) is in anyway linked to the possibility of being susceptible to melanoma. If you know of any research for or against this then feel free to leave a comment below.