Transgender hormone therapy (male-to-female) males is associated with higher serum estrogen. Both estrogen and testosterone help to stimulate bone formation, especially during puberty. Estrogen is the predominant sex hormone that slows bone loss, even in men. In spite of the induction of breast development, transgender women who undergo HRT do not have an increased risk of breast cancer. Only a handful of cases of breast cancer have ever been described in transgender women who have undergone male-to-female HRT. This is in accordance with research in cisgender men in which gynecomastia has been found not to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer,
Alpha-Melanocyte-stimulating hormone melanotan II, the former of which being in phase-III clinical trials in the United States. Bremelanotide, another analogue of α-MSH, is currently under development not as a photoprotective agent, but instead for the treatment of sexual dysfunction. All of these drugs have significantly greater potencies than α-MSH, along with improved pharmacokinetics and distinctive selectivity profiles. Alpha-Melanocyte-stimulating hormone α-Melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) is an endogenous peptide hormone and neuropeptide of the melanocortin family, with a tridecapeptide structure and the amino acid sequence Ac-Ser-Tyr-Ser-Met-Glu-His-Phe-Arg-Trp-Gly-Lys-Pro-Val-NH. It is the most important of the melanocyte-stimulating hormones (MSHs) (also known as melanotropins) in stimulating melanogenesis, a process