Traveling without prescription

[graca123]

This is a frequent question / problem for many of us. Well, here is my plan.

I will be traveling to Japan and Thailand next week, and I don't have a prescription. All I have is either powder vials or reconstituted vials (plus syringes and alcohol pads). I fly on Friday morning, so I am planning on doing the shot on Thursday afternoon (which will be 6 days since my last shot), and then, when I am back after two weeks, reducing the doze by half, or more. I am now on 2.4mg sema, so I'll restart with 1mg, I guess.

Not sure if it's worth it to risk flying with it to Japan (Don't need it in Thailand, since I will be back home for my following shot).

Alternatively, I could just bring the vial in a cold container, and try to buy the gear in Tokyo (just a syringe, really), but I am reading mixed reviews on how strict they are there.

 

[d0se1]

I wouldn't risk it. Two weeks without a shot won't affect your goal. The half-life is longer than you think. Once you get back use the same dose as usual. You'll be fine.

 

[Chelsea_Dagger]

I would not risk traveling internationally with it. At the least it could cause you a big inconvenience/delay and have it confiscated. You don’t want to risk having them refuse your entry to the country, which they very well could do.

 

[ZippityDooDah]

I literally just replied to someone on Reddit about this earlier, so I'll do a copy-and-paste and add a little more commentary that the Reddit people don't deserve...

I traveled a lot for work over the past three years, and early on I went through all the hassles of trying to find the perfect travel cooler setup, pre-planning dosing schedules and what to bring, whether or not to reconstitute in advance, etc. plus the constant apprehension of wondering if today was the day TSA was going to get nosey (they never did, which seems to be the norm for most people).

Ultimately I just stopped bothering with trying to take anything with me unless I was going to be away from home for more than 2 weeks or so which was only 2-3 times a year. I'm not diabetic so missing doses here and there wasn't critical. Personally I think missing doses occasionally helps the body do a quick little reset to help the overall benefit and effectiveness of whatever you're taking.

While it was never an issue for me, the one thing I tell people is that if you are at all the "nervous" type and traveling with peptides has you thinking about a thousand "what if?" scenarios in your head, you are definitely better off traveling without them. TSA is not great at a lot of things, but one thing they do seem quite good at is picking out people who look the least bit nervous.

Especially if traveling for vacation, it's VACATION, take a break from things like your GLP-1 and/or peptide routine and enjoy yourself for cripes sake! Indulge a little! Don't worry about missing a couple (or even a few) doses. You're not going to die, and you're not going to gain 50lbs. Even for business travel, having one less thing to concern yourself with can be a huge relief.

Obviously this advice doesn't reply if you're diabetic or have other conditions where skipping doses could cause serious issues, but for everyone else, just chill out and learn not to be a slave to a syringe.

 

[ZippityDooDah]

I would not risk traveling internationally with it. At the least it could cause you a big inconvenience/delay and have it confiscated. You don’t want to risk having them refuse your entry to the country, which they very well could do.

FWIW, any time I traveled outside North America for 2-3 weeks, I only did so with real Mounjaro pens and a copy of my prescription (which I maintained for the first year after I went off-brand for exactly those situations). Some of the countries I was visiting are very strict about certain things, and given the nature of my work and travel I was not going to risk any potential problems. In fact that last 2 or 3 times I went to those parts of the world I just skipped doses altogether and I'm still down 120lbs from when I started so nothing terrible happened.

 

[Chelsea_Dagger]

FWIW, any time I traveled outside North America for 2-3 weeks, I only did so with real Mounjaro pens and a copy of my prescription (which I maintained for the first year after I went off-brand for exactly those situations).

Yes that’s normally ok for sure, but I have even seen situations where they will look at the date of your prescription fill and with pills how many tablets you’re supposed to have in your bottle- they can get very annoying about it if they want to. I think with injectables especially vials they get even more strict and unlabeled peptides, forget it.

 

[geoguy78]

I went to Europe for about three weeks a few months back and took my tirz. I put it in a cheap little insulin case along with a few syringes and alcohol wipes, and kept it in my carry on. At TSA security I just told the bag scanner that I had injectable medications in a case. Nobody cared. On a related note, many of the places I stayed at did not have refrigerators, so my tirz was repeatedly put through several day long warm/cool cycles. I didn't die. Honestly, I'm with Zippity though, it wasn't really worth the hassle of bringing, especially because I'm already at maintenance and ate like a pig anyways 🤣

 

[ZippityDooDah]

Yes that’s normally ok for sure, but I have even seen situations where they will look at the date of your prescription fill and with pills how many tablets you’re supposed to have in your bottle- they can get very annoying about it if they want to. I think with injectables especially vials they get even more strict and unlabeled peptides, forget it.

I can definitely see that happening with tablets/capsules more frequently than injectables, given the opioid abuse epidemic and such. With injectables I think 99% of the time a simple "it's my insulin" is more than sufficient if actually asked.

 

[cheaperseeker]

I agree with not decreasing your dose when you get back. I've skipped a week and started back up at the same dose without issue before.

 

[juGGaKNot]

I will just modify the travel letter i have from my previous pharmacy order.

Its not like they can call and verify ? Wouldn't it be a gdpr breach for the pharmacy to give out details.?

 

[Chelsea_Dagger]

I can definitely see that happening with tablets/capsules more frequently than injectables, given the opioid abuse epidemic and such. With injectables I think 99% of the time a simple "it's my insulin" is more than sufficient if actually asked.

3ml vials are what medical grade injectable opiates come in as well though, and it seems like they are really on top of people traveling with injectables like testosterone and hgh etc for some reason.

 

[spyke65]

The times that I have traveled with my peptides I carried a vial with only enough for the trip, enough syringes for the trip and a copy of my old (unexpired) prescription from an online compounding company. Each trip was out of country and being unsure of security in other countries, being able to come home empty handed made it less stressful.

If I am only going to miss one dose, I change my schedule so I take my last dose before leaving home and resume the day I get back. So, less than 13 days, it’s stayed at home.

When I get home, I start at the same level as I was unless it’s a rare situation where I’ve missed several doses.