Is Testosterone cypionate legal in the United Kingdom?

The most prescribed testosterone shot in the United States. It lasts about eight days in the body. That is why one big weekly shot gives a high and then a crash, and why splitting the same amount smooths it out.

This is the vial most people are handed. It is testosterone with a chemical tail attached, mixed in oil.

How it works: This is testosterone with a chemical tail called cypionate attached. The tail makes it dissolve in oil, so it sits in a small pool at the shot site.

Approval history: FDA-approved as Depo-Testosterone for male hypogonadism, when a man's body makes too little testosterone. A Schedule III controlled substance. Not approved for women, or for age-related low testosterone in men with normal levels.

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 cypionate 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 cypionate 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 cypionate 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.