To the anon with the Egypt travel plans, there is the option to get T 'pellets' put under your skin which would keep your T levels rather constant for a few months... ofc inserting anything under your skin comes with risks but if staying on T is sth you'd desire for that time, you could talk to your doctor about it
(Re: this ask!)
This is true, and I neglected to mention it, so thank you for that! If anon decides to look into this route, though, Iâd probably recommend that they âtestâ if pellets are a viable option for them before travellingâa small but real percentage of people extrude the pellets (5-12%), and while thereâs no 100% guaranteed predictor to figure out if this could happen in advance, it would really suck to extrude a pellet while travelling without consistent doctor access.
I figure you know that since you mentioned risks, but Iâm putting the source here because whenever we mention pellets on this blog we tend to get people assuming that they extrude 100% of the time and are never safe. :) They do have higher rates of complication than something like injection, which is worth considering if youâre unsure how your body reacts to things in its skin that it wants goneâsome people canât get surface piercings, for example, such as the eyebrow or âvampire bitesâ, because something about their bodies rejects them. And things like collagen disorders can make this more likely, especially if the affected form of collagen is found in the interstitium or epidermis.
All that said, if the timeframe works and anon can establish pellets as a physically (and financially!) viable option in advance, that could totally work! I tried to hit a couple different bases with that answer, since I wasnât sure if their question was about whether or not going off T for that length of time would revert them to someone who could âpassâ for a cis woman.
Iâm also gonna add @keshiikâs replies to this ask:
tbh it'd be way better to bring testosterone (pill form ideally) and claim you have a cis man's endocrinological problem or just say it's for an illness and leave it at that. i've travelled overseas several times and they've never checked my meds, even when reentering the States (which is the most stringent customs i've been thru), so i wouldn't worry about airline agents, & like. almost everyone has a medication of some sort. if you just play it cool the ppl you're with won't think anything of it
I agree with the sentiment of this that itâs better to stay on T during travel if theyâre concerned about being flagged as trans in a country with a very trans-unfriendly government. I donât think Iâd go for pill form, though; itâs extremely difficult to access in the US, because the original form of oral T (methyltestosterone) was very liver-toxic. (This is also why a lot of people believe that all forms of oral T are very liver-toxic.)
Oral undecanoate, the pill form sometimes prescribed in Canada and Europe, is easier on the liver but requires several doses a day to keep a consistent level in your body, which might also make it a pain for travelling.
There are also injectable forms of T that are done monthly instead of weekly or biweekly, such as Sustanon, but I believe that these arenât prescribed in the States; theyâre used in the UK, Australia, and possibly Canada. Anon should not take Sustanon if they have a peanut allergy, though, because itâs suspended in peanut oil.
North American customs are generally okay with prescription drugs if you can prove that you have a legal prescription for them, though you should absolutely look up specific crossing regulations before travelling (theyâre different for air vs land vs sea etc). You generally need the meds to be in their original containers with prescriptions on the bottle, or have a paper prescription from your doctor; if youâre travelling with injection supplies, youâll also need a note about the needles. And if youâre entering the States or Canada, you need to declare that you have a controlled substance for personal medication use to the customs officer.
I donât know about Egyptian customs, though. And while I agree that you shouldnât have to disclose what your medication is for, I donât think Iâd recommend claiming that youâre cis, or in any way inviting scrutiny into your medications and body. If you absolutely need to, I think âhormone disorderâ or âendocrinological problemâ is the safest thing to say, but any more than that and weâre getting into territory I donât feel comfortable speaking authoritatively on. My experiences with border crossings have been all in North America, and I have a significant amount of privilege there for being white and typically travelling with my cis family through the NEXUS program.
With all this taken into account/TL;DR: I think that if anon chooses to stay on T while travelling to a country that isnât very trans-friendly, then long-acting forms like pellets or Sustanon would be the best bet for them, so that they could avoid the additional complicator of taking meds through customs and safely administering while travelling. Both of these they should make sure they tolerate well in advance, especially pellets.
- Mod Wolf
















