Looking for a dermatologist which can prescribe hydrocortisone liquid

Life Health & Fitness
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Is there any dermatologist in Taiwan (any part of Taiwan is fine really), which will prescribe 1% hydrocortisone liquid for itchiness and dermatitis? It needs to be liquid, not ointment. It needs to be hydrocortisone, not betamethasone.

All dermatologists I visited had betamethasone liquid. But I couldn’t yet find somewhere that prescribes hydrocortisone liquid. It’s just something that works with less potent steroid in my experience.

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This seems to deliver to Taiwan?

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There are a few places that do not explicitly say they can’t deliver it to Taiwan.

But although I am not 100% sure, I thought cortisone is a prescription medicine in Taiwan. Maybe it’s not. I am not sure. If it is, then there might be a problem in customs. Does anyone know about this issue?

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I looked at that site recently for something else, and the shipping fees seemed excessive. This is showing up as NT$509 for the product plus NT$672 for standard shipping and NT$192 for customs (NT$1373 total), so you’d have to be pretty desperate.

I looked on a couple of hospital medication search engines and it doesn’t seem to be readily available here. Liquid hydrocortisone seems to be just an American convenience thing (because they can charge 10x more by repackaging it). Is this what you’ve seen in pharmacies?

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If so, maybe you could dilute it fivefold/tenfold in 50% aqueous ethanol or coconut oil or something. Or do the same with 1% hydrocortisone cream/ointment (though it would then be weaker than 1% of course). I’d just use the cream/ointment, personally.

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Thanks, I’ll try to remember that!

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I was a bit confused by that site actually (I think I was looking for hot sauce). Despite the .com.tw domain, it doesn’t seem to be that good for shipping to Taiwan. It appears to be intended as a global site for buying imported stuff targeted at several Asian markets. I wonder if anyone actually uses it in Taiwan…

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I was prescribed clobetasol propionate cream for my caterpillar rash at a skin doctor which - according to Wikipedia:

Use should be short term and only if other weaker corticosteroids are not effective.

It feels like doctors in Taiwan seem to prefer to prescribe the “stronger” version of medications… :man_shrugging:

Did you simply ask at a pharmacy? Maybe even bringing an empty package telling them you need more?