Travelling with GLP-1 medication: flights, heat and time zones

Airports and security

Carry medication in hand luggage, never in the hold, where temperatures drop below safe range. Keep pens in their original packaging with the pharmacy label visible, and carry a copy of your prescription or a clinic letter. UK security is accustomed to injectable medicines. Needles for personal medication are permitted with the medicine they serve. Declare them at the scanner and the process is usually a two-minute conversation.

Keeping pens cool

• In-use pens (Mounjaro, Wegovy) can stay out of the fridge for up to 30 days below 30°C, plenty for most holidays.
• Unopened pens need 2 to 8°C. For longer trips, use an insulated cool pouch with gel packs.
• Never let a pen freeze, and never leave it in a parked car or direct sun. If in doubt about temperature exposure, message the clinical team before using it.

Tablets (Wegovy tablets, Foundayo) are the easy travellers: room temperature, no restrictions.

At your destination

Hotel mini-fridges often run warmer or colder than medicine fridges, check with a thermometer if the trip is long, or ask reception for fridge space. Keep pens out of the minibar freezer compartment. Frozen medicine must be discarded.

Time zones and dose timing

For weekly injections, pick a local time you will remember, the exact hour matters less than the 7-day gap. Short trips of a few days are easiest handled by keeping to UK time. For daily tablets, shift the dose gradually or anchor it to breakfast in the new zone. Missing one tablet is not a crisis, never double up.

The paperwork that protects you

• Travel insurance that covers pre-existing treatment.
• A clinic letter confirming your prescription, message us and we provide one.
• Enough supply for the trip plus a buffer week, ordered at least 2 weeks ahead.