Is Testosterone blends legal in the United Kingdom?

One vial holding several forms of testosterone that come out at different speeds. It is harder to understand and harder to time blood tests around. The convenience it offers is mostly gone once you take a single form weekly.

If you were handed a vial called a blend of four testosterones, this is your page. The best known one mixes a fast form, two middle-speed forms and a slow one.

How it works: Several forms of testosterone, each with a chemical tail of a different length, mixed in one oil. The body snips short tails off sooner and long tails later.

Approval history: Testosterone blends that mix several forms (esters) are not approved in the United States. They are licensed medicines in the United Kingdom and many other countries. In the United States, testosterone in any form is a Schedule III controlled substance.

Licenses medicines for sale in the UK. A compound without a licence to be sold (a marketing authorisation) is an unlicensed medicine. The law only lets it reach people through a prescriber, under the specials scheme (unlicensed medicines made for one patient's needs). It cannot be sold as a research product.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Testosterone blends on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check MHRA directly

Whether Testosterone blends is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United Kingdom. Before you compete or get tested, look up Testosterone blends by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.