Traveling to Mexico and Need Your Meds? Do a Google Search First
Updated September 2023
A feeling more than vaguely familiar
How to get your prescription filled in Mexico
If you are coming for a shorter stay, no may having nothing to worry about - you can bring up to three months worth of presciptions with you. After that, your prescription will likely need to be prescribed by a local doctor to be refilled in Mexico.
To get you ready for any similar task, let’s use my example of the experience I had looking for a prescription sleep aid. The story illustrates what you can expect seeking any medication , as I’ve witnessed versions of it played out at pharmacy counters all over Mexico from Mazatlán to Querétaro over all different kinds of medicines.
Sweating and fumbling in front of a Mexican pharmacy counter, I had begun my quest early in the knowledge that anything having to do with a healthcare system anywhere in the world is likely to take up the majority of your day. Mexico is no exception.
Fortunately, my pharmacautical needs weren’t life-threatening. I have bullet-proof insomnia and simply can’t sleep without pharmaceutical help. (Studies are showing insomnia is often inherited. One of my first childhood memories is learning what a Miltown was.
Consultorios in Mexico
This is a list of what type of services are generally offered at a consultorio, with their prices in pesos. (typical exchange 18:1)
Consultorias in Mexico provide a general practice doctor who will write prescriptions and treat minor illnesses like the flu. Get familiar with where the nearest one is and their schedule well before your next migraine, intestinal disturbance or sleepless night in Mexico.
Doctors in the consultorios can keep strange hours. Check their schedules by asking the pharmacy which is usually next door.
I somehow already had a prescription for Valium and single month’s prescription of Lunesta, neither of which works if I’m really wound up.
Within five minutes after arriving to the consultorio, a doctora made up like a Mexican movie starlet, gave me a three month prescription for Ambien, called Zolpidem in Mexico ($800 pesos/$35 dollars).
Xanax, I came to learn later, is called Alprazola ($8 dollars for a month prescription). She charged me 100 pesos, about $5 dollars, for the visit. Thus armed with three sleep aid prescriptions, I felt confident enough to go to the coffee shop next door and swill expressos for the rest of the afternoon.
Anticipate your prescription needs far in advance
A consultario less than a mile away in a tourist zone charged 800 pesos. This one charges 45. Shop around.
Don’t wait until you have three days until your prescription runs out to have it re-filled. You may have to schedule a doctor’s visit for a new prescription or have problems finding a consultorio that doesn’t gouge tourists.
You might run into confusion on what your medicine in called in Mexico or what can be substituted for it if it’s not available there. Pharmacies have very thin inventories. You may have to go to several to get your prescription filled.
Although more medicines can be purchased without a prescription in Mexico than in the U.S., greater controls exist today than you experienced if you last visited Mexico 30 years ago. Like the U.S., Mexico has imposed strict restrictions on opioids, a category most prescription sleep aids fall under.
Be prepared for language barriers
Expats and foreign residents have stood next to me saying over and over words such as “liver” or “blood sugar” or “constipation,” their voices rising in panic with each English repetition, and at times not realizing that drogas means street drugs. (Medications in Spanish is medicamentos. You’ll want to learn that before you ask a doctor for any drogas in Mexico.)
A good bit of the trouble you will encounter when trying to procure medicines in Mexico have to do with difficulties in knowing what they are called in Spanish. Although the scientific name for drugs in usually be written almost identically, the pronunciation will be different enough to confuse a pharmacy tech.
You really can’t expect them to try out all the vowels when hunting for your favorite drug. We are also used to using brand names for certain medicines, often not even knowing it’s a brand name. Do a Google search of the generic scientific name for the drug in Spanish. Listen to the pronunciation in Google Translate, practice it, and write it out phonetically as well as how it’s written in Spanish.
I once made the mistake of asking for Lunesta, rather than using the scientific name and was told it wasn’t available in Mexico. A quick search in Spanish (“medicamentos para dormir”) would have disclosed that indeed, Lunesta (under the name eszopicione) is a common sleep aid in Mexico.
Mexico also has its own brands too. If you go to a consultario for a prescription, make sure you get the scientific name of the drug and not a specific a brand name. If your prescription has a brand name, pharmacies will only fill that specific brand. After enough trips to pharmacies who don’t carry the brand, you’ll find yourself having to go to the doctor again for a different prescription. Suddenly, a quick trip to get a prescription filled has become a saga.
Shop around for best price
After a few years in Mexico, I learned that no matter what a drug costs, no matter how cheap the price sounds by my inflated American standards, one needs to always get a second quote from another pharmacy. Prices can be wildly different (It’s really not that different from the US when you think about it. A skin cream I used to purchase for $35 on one insurance plan cost $300 on another in the US (and in Mexico costs $6 dollars)
Doctor visits, whether in a consultorio or a medical practice are very inexpensive in Mexico. Unlike Americans, who will wait days with a cold or minor illness before going to a doctor, Mexicans do not like to suffer and see doctors quickly. Given all the complications that come up when navigating a foreign culture, you should too.
Related links:
Pharmacies deliver! - Ventanas Mexico [blog]
Monica Paxon has written an excellent general guide to the Mexican medical system, "The English Speaker's Guide to Medical Care in Mexico."
Up next:
I break down five cliches about retiring to Mexico.
Most recent: Warm yourself up to some date-night songs in Spanish (audio files included)
About the author:
Kerry Baker is the author of several books. “The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico” is a cookbook for travelers, expats, and snowbirds trying to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico. "If Only I Had a Place" on renting luxuriously in Mexico as an aspiring expat. Her latest, “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico” will help you set up a time frame and gives you what to expect.