for your "over the counter" can't-get-it-in-the UK travel purchase tips?

[MangosAndPapayas]

I've only recently learnt that you can buy melatonin over the counter in the USA but in the UK it's only available on prescription.

I was thinking that for someone coming to the UK the morning after pill (NOT as emergency contraception before I get flamed) might be a useful purchase for countries where you can't get it.

And then I was wondering what other things can you buy over the counter
in other countries that you can't get in the UK?

Canada? Australia? Europe?

Any tips for anything worthwhile? I'm thinking more retin A/ melatonin type stuff than paracetamol.

Tip - if you can't use anti-malarials. Vitamin B1 or even loads of Marmite (my preferred choice) is a good alternative. It works as a mosquito repellent. I can't use anti-malarials but have to travel to places in Asia where Malaria is prevalent - I never get bitten, even during summer.

Astoria - "loads of marmite" - do you mean eating marmite?

Or spreading it on you?

Why does marmite work? Is that true?

So what happens if you buy something OTC in a country where it is legal to do so and bring them back to the UK? Can you get in trouble with customs etc?

I don't know if the law is different now, but I thought of this...

In 1967, Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug charges and were given unusually harsh sentences: Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Jagger

Vitamin b and marmite are not reliable mosquito repellents.

Melatonin can be ordered online from america for delivery to the UK - perfectly legal to do that. Told to do so by a gp who wanted to prescribe it but couldn't as patient was under 55.

Bring back polytar shampoo from the us - EU banned it for four years which is a bastard if you have psoriasis. Ban now lifted but supplies very low.

Re codeine - illegal in Greece and seriously illegal in Dubai and other places. People have got in trouble for having it in their bloodstream.

Eu does not mean all rules the same.

Have bought Tramadol, Valium, Antibiotics and some amazing water tablets OTC in Thailand.

You can also get contact lenses without a prescription which was handy when my DP forgot to pack his.

Please don't take antibiotics if you font really need them, most things (eg ear infections) will clear up without.

USA - teeth whitening strips that actually work I can't remember the name of the active ingredient but it's available in a much greater strength there than here.

I was thinking that for someone coming to the UK the morning after pill (NOT as emergency contraception before I get flamed) might be a useful purchase for countries where you can't get it.

What else would you use the morning after pill for, if not emergency contraception? Am I missing something?

Top tip for anyone needing hydrocortisone (here in UK) supermarket 'Bite and Sting Relief' off the shelf is hydrocortisone! In Asda anyway. This discovery has revolutionised my life and my eczema!

Italy- you can get virtually everything OTC. Even prescription only stuff. You just tell the pharmacist you'll bring the prescription later when you have the chance to see the GP and they give you your money back.

Bring your bogstandard painkillers with you though, as you're talking about 10 euro for about 10 ibuprofen and/or paracetomol.

If you use imigran or its non-branded equivalents, OTC in Italy they still cost ££ but not £££££ like they do in the UK.

There are some branded painkillers called OKI which everyone takes. They aren't paracetomol, or ibuprofen, or codeine. But they bloody work, they are soluble, and there isn't a house in the country that hasn't got a ginormous box of them. (about 60 for about 5 euro)

Just checked my ginormous box- ketoprofene is the active ingredient.

Thank you Vintage I was trying to remember the name of the soluble packets!! I had a kidney infection in Italy and they gave me loads of these, they really worked, I had loads of sachets left that I took back home and was gutted when they finally ran out. I need to stock up next time I'm there.

In the US I stock up on

big bottles of paracetamol / ibuprofen / aspirin (600-1000 tabs per bottle)

Kids Pepto bismol tablets (little pink bottle) brilliant for upset tummies

Kids Imodium liquid

Kids Dramamine anti travel sickness tablets

Sore throat lollies (basically a strepsil on a stick but because it's a lolly they'll take it)

You can also get huge bottles of ranitidine in the US - not the little boxes of 8 or 12 tablets the UK sell OTC. I also stock up on tryptophan tablets and Polysporin cream. Astoria are there no anti-malaria tablets you can take at all? Not even doxy? I feel for you but would have to stop travelling in your position: I've had malaria more than once, but m. Falciparum terrified me. I went from walking alongside a road to passed out unconscious on the side. Luckily a passing motorcyclist though it odd a white woman was asleep at the side of the road, so scooped me up and took me to a UN base (no hospitals where we were). He saved my life without a doubt: I was in a coma for over a week, and it was touch and go for a while according to the doctor. Lots of anti-malaria tablets are also treatment for malaria, and doxy is first line treatment for a lot of things you can pick up in Africa. I literally couldn't do my job if there was nothing I could take

Dubai:

Fertility drugs like clomid and progesterone
Antibiotics
Birth control pills

It is difficult to get painkillers there without prescription, anything with the slightest hint of codeine in it requires a prescription.

Yes OP, what others have asked: what on earth could you use the morning after pill for except emergency contraception??? I am very confused!

idefix I had the same issue finding threadworm stuff, could get on prescription but had to sit in out of hours for literally hours and then lie to the doc that I'd definitely seen worms before they would prescribe then DH was annoyed I'd lied and wouldn't let me give DS the medicine. Then the dosage is massively bigger than ovex for some reason and they won't prescribe for all family members unless you go to your own doctor. Fuck that. So I took DS's medicine in UK quantities and took him to another doctor and got more. Then imported ovex.

Found generic mebendazole for around €8 per 6 doses recently though from an online pharmacy. Legal and legitimate, if you want the details.

You can get 10% peroxide cream in the US ( for spots/acne) OTC.

OP, in your original post you asked re Retin A. I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but I believe you can buy Tretinoin OTC in quite a few countries (Spain, Portugal, India, Thailand I think) very cheaply. Tretinoin cream is amazing for making wrinkles disappear as well as for acne (and apparently for stretch marks as well, although it mustn't be taken when pregnant or breastfeeding). If anyone is considering using it, just make sure you research it thoroughly on the internet first as you need to use it very sparingly at first and then build up. I use Tretinoin 0.05% cream

You can get diclofenic (sp?) over the counter in Spain. It's really cheap, too.

Had to produce my passport to buy Sudofed in the US.
Had to go to the pharmacy to buy Ibruprofen gel in Spain.

You can get Differin gel 1% (Caroline Hirons) and Diclofenac 75mg amongst many other wonders in the Middle East.

USA - Phenazopyridine Hydrochloride for cystitis/UTIs. It's like a local anaesthetic so no burning/needing the loo every 2 mins.

Gutted you can't get it here!

Italy you can get diclofenac and amoxicillin

that's all , the UK are pretty good for painkillers