Travelling changes your sexual health picture in ways that are worth preparing for. Your usual clinic access may not be there, your PrEP supply may be interrupted, your local legal and medical context changes, and STI prevalence differs significantly between regions. None of this is a reason to not have sex when you travel — it's a reason to prepare properly so you can.
This is the pre-travel checklist.
🛡️ PrEP: Continuity of Supply
This is the most operationally critical item. Running out of PrEP mid-trip is not a minor inconvenience.
Calculate your supply before you leave. Count your pills. Add buffer. For a 10-day trip, bring 14 days of medication minimum — delayed flights, extended stays, and lost bags happen.
PrEP is not universally available by prescription abroad. In many countries, you cannot simply walk into a pharmacy with a foreign prescription and get PrEP. Some countries don't have it approved at all; some have it but with healthcare access restrictions. Don't assume your home supply can be topped up at the destination. The country-specific guides in this app cover local PrEP access — check your destination before you travel.
Carry your medication in its original packaging. In some countries, carrying unmarked pills can attract customs attention. Your prescription information or a doctor's letter (easily obtained from your clinic) removes any ambiguity. Keep medications in carry-on luggage, not checked bags.
If you're on the 2-1-1 (on-demand) regimen, the calculation is different — but the principle holds. Make sure you have enough on hand for your trip's likely pattern of sexual activity, plus buffer.
🔩 Vaccinations: Destination-Specific Additions
Your standard MSM vaccination loadout (HPV, Hep A/B, Mpox, Meningitis) should be complete before you travel. But some destinations require additions.
Typhoid — relevant for travel to regions with lower sanitation standards, particularly if you're visiting local communities rather than resort environments. Typhoid can transmit through contaminated water and food, and fecal-oral transmission routes that overlap with rimming make it worth considering if you'll be sexually active.
Yellow Fever — required for entry to some countries in Africa and South America (and required as proof of vaccination for onward travel). Check entry requirements for your destination.
Rabies — relevant if you're going to remote areas with limited medical infrastructure, though not sexually transmitted.
The practical step: Book a travel health appointment at least 4–6 weeks before departure. Some vaccines require a series or have timing requirements.
⚠️ Legal Considerations: Know Before You Go
This is uncomfortable to address but important. The legal context for gay men varies dramatically across countries, and in some places where gay tourism is visibly present, the formal legal situation is worse than the practical one — but that gap can close suddenly.
Criminalisation: Over 60 countries criminalise same-sex sexual acts to varying degrees. This ranges from nominal laws rarely enforced to active prosecution and serious penalties. Research your destination's current situation, not just the headline tourist reputation — enforcement can be selective and contexts change.
Status disclosure laws: Some countries have HIV criminalisation laws that create criminal liability for people living with HIV. If you're HIV-positive and undetectable, understand the legal context before being open about your status.
The practical approach: Understand your destination's situation, not to make you anxious but so you can make genuinely informed decisions about your visibility and openness while you're there. Being out and gay in a city with a visible LGBTQ+ scene in a country where homosexuality is nominally illegal is a different risk calculation from a rural area in the same country.
Resources: ILGA World's State-Sponsored Homophobia Report is updated annually and provides country-by-country legal data. It's searchable online.
🟢 STI Prevalence and the Regional Picture
STI prevalence is not uniform globally. Some things to factor in:
Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea has different prevalence across regions. In parts of Southeast Asia, gonorrhoea strains that are resistant to multiple antibiotic classes are significantly more prevalent than in Europe. This doesn't mean don't have sex; it means treatment if you pick something up there may be more complex, and reporting your travel history to the treating clinician is important so they can consider local resistance patterns.
HIV prevalence in the populations you may be meeting varies substantially — some regions have substantially higher rates of undiagnosed infection than your home environment. If you're on PrEP correctly, this is managed. If your PrEP adherence is imperfect, the practical risk in a high-prevalence environment is meaningfully different.
Mpox: Still circulating in MSM sexual networks globally. Your vaccination status is your protection — make sure you have both doses before travelling.
🔀 Practical Supplies to Pack
You should not assume you can reliably source these at your destination:
- PrEP — as discussed, carry your full supply
- Condoms — your preferred brand and size. Condom sizing and quality standards vary internationally, and running out at 2am in an unfamiliar city and relying on local availability is not the plan
- Lube — same reasoning; also subject to customs restrictions if carrying significant volume (silicone lube in checked luggage is fine; large quantities might attract attention)
- DoxyPEP — if you use it, discuss with your doctor about carrying a supply for the trip. Post-exposure bacterial protection doesn't work if the supply is in your home medicine cabinet
- PEP access plan — know how you would access PEP at your destination before you need it. Access varies significantly by country: in some places it's available through sexual health clinics; in others, A&E is the only reliable route; in some destinations it may not be accessible at all within the 72-hour window. The country guides in this app cover PEP access routes by destination — check your specific country before you travel, not when you need it.
🛡️ On Return: The Post-Travel Test
Even with all the preparation, travel is higher-exposure than your home environment for most people. Getting a full STI panel on return — including 3-site swabs and, if your trip involved higher-risk practices, an HCV test — is standard sensible practice.
Timing: Some infections need a window period before they'll show on a test. Syphilis and HIV both have window periods — test at 45 days post-exposure for most purposes, and again at 90 days if there was a high-risk exposure. Your clinic can advise on the specific window for your situation.
Don't wait for symptoms. Bacterial STIs in the rectum and throat are almost always silent. The post-travel test catches what symptoms never would.
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