Duromine 15mg Capsules (Phentermine) – Prescription-Only Medicine
Duromine 15mg contains phentermine, an appetite suppressant prescribed for short periods as one part of a supervised weight-management plan. It is the lower of the two strengths we hold, and which strength you are given is a decision for your prescriber rather than for you or for us.
We dispense it within Kenya only, against a prescription one of our pharmacists has read and approved. If you do not have a prescription, our doctor can assess whether this medicine is appropriate for you — a proper assessment rather than a formality, and a good number of those conversations end with a different plan.
How Supply Works Here
Four steps, in this order, every time. There is no route around them and no version of this where the medicine arrives first.
- You send us the prescription. Upload a clear photograph or scan showing the prescriber’s name and registration, your name, the medicine, the strength, the quantity and the date
- A pharmacist reads it. We check that it is valid, that it is for you, and that the strength and quantity match what is being requested. We may come back to you with a question, and we may decline
- Only then do we ask for payment. If the prescription is approved you receive a payment link. If it is declined, no money has been taken at any point and none will be
- We dispense and deliver within Kenya, and we keep a record of what was supplied against what was prescribed
The reason payment comes last is deliberate. A pharmacist deciding whether to supply a medicine should not be deciding about somebody who has already paid.
What Phentermine Is, and What It Is For
Phentermine works on the part of the brain that governs appetite, reducing hunger and how much you want to eat. It does not burn fat, block the absorption of food, or change your metabolism in any way you could measure.
It is licensed as a short-term addition to a weight-management programme, not as a treatment on its own. Prescribers consider it where weight is affecting health rather than appearance, and generally where diet and activity changes have been made and have not been enough. It is intended to make the early weeks of a difficult change more manageable, and that is the whole of its job.
The honest framing, which matters more than any other sentence here: what it does is make eating less feel possible for a while. What decides the outcome is what you change during that while. People who use the time to build different habits tend to hold the change. People who wait for the medicine to do the work regain the weight when it stops, and that is the usual outcome rather than the unlucky one.
Why 15mg, and When a Prescriber Chooses It
We hold both strengths and they are not interchangeable.
15mg is the lower strength and it is often where a prescriber starts. Every effect of phentermine comes with a stimulant effect attached, and the lower dose produces less of both. A prescriber may choose it to see how you tolerate the medicine before deciding anything else, or because you are sensitive to stimulants, or because your blood pressure or heart rate need watching, or because it is doing the job and there is no reason to go higher.
Lower is not a lesser prescription. If 15mg is controlling your appetite well enough to let you change what you eat, that is the dose you should be on, and pushing higher for faster results buys you more side effects rather than more benefit.
Do not move between strengths on your own, and do not keep both in the house. A prescription for 15mg does not authorise 30mg and we will not substitute one for the other, even where the arithmetic looks obvious. If your prescriber wants you on a different strength, we need a prescription that says so.
Before You Start: What Should Already Have Been Checked
If none of this happened before the prescription was written, say so when you bring it to us. It is not an accusation of anybody; it is a gap worth closing before the first capsule rather than after a problem.
- Your blood pressure and pulse, measured rather than estimated. This medicine raises both, so the starting figures are what any later reading gets compared against
- Your heart. Any history of chest pain, palpitations, murmurs, breathlessness on exertion, or a heart problem in the family under the age of sixty
- Everything else you take, including things people forget to mention — herbal products, slimming teas, cold and flu remedies, and anything bought without a prescription
- Whether you could be pregnant, and what contraception you are using
- Your mood and your history with food, including any period of restricting, bingeing or purging, however long ago
Who It Is Not Prescribed For
This list applies to both strengths, and a lower dose is not a way around any of it. It is the reason a prescriber has to see you first, and the reason we ask about these at the counter even when a prescription is in front of us.
Not prescribed for anyone with heart or circulatory disease — that includes angina, previous heart attack or stroke, irregular heart rhythm, heart failure, disease of the heart valves, raised pressure in the lung arteries, or high blood pressure that is not controlled. It raises heart rate and blood pressure, which is why this list is long and not negotiable.
Not prescribed alongside a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, or within two weeks of stopping one. The combination can cause a dangerous rise in blood pressure. Tell us about every medicine you take, including ones prescribed elsewhere.
Not prescribed for anyone with anorexia, bulimia or severe depression, or a history of either. An appetite suppressant given to somebody with disordered eating is actively harmful, and this is the contraindication most often skipped over.
Also not suitable in pregnancy, while planning pregnancy, or while breastfeeding; with an overactive thyroid or glaucoma; with a history of drug or alcohol dependence; or alongside other stimulants and weight-loss medicines. It is not a children’s medicine, and it is not usually prescribed over the age of sixty-five.
Medicines and Substances That Interact
Bring your full list to our pharmacist before you start. The ones below are the ones that matter most, and several of them are things people do not think of as medicines at all.
- Monoamine oxidase inhibitors — the serious one. Never together, and not within two weeks of stopping one
- Other stimulants — including medicines for attention disorders, and any other appetite suppressant. The effects add up rather than overlapping
- Decongestants — pseudoephedrine and similar, sold across the counter in cold and flu remedies. This is the interaction people walk into by accident, because nobody thinks of a flu tablet as a stimulant
- Blood pressure medicines — phentermine works against them, and your readings may drift upwards on a dose that was controlling you perfectly well before
- Insulin and diabetes tablets — eating less changes what you need. See the section below if this applies to you
- Antidepressants — several classes interact. This needs checking individually rather than generally
- Thyroid medicines — the stimulant effects can compound
- Alcohol — worsens dizziness and poor sleep, and makes the heart effects less predictable
- Caffeine — coffee, strong tea and energy drinks all add to the same effects. Most people need noticeably less than usual
- Herbal slimming products and slimming teas — often contain stimulants that are not declared. Do not take them alongside this
How It Is Taken
- One capsule daily, in the morning, with or just after breakfast. Swallow it whole with water — do not open or chew it, because the capsule is designed to release slowly across the day
- Do not take it later in the day. An afternoon dose means a night without sleep, and poor sleep undoes weight loss faster than the medicine supports it
- Take it at about the same time each morning. The release is spread across roughly half a day, so a consistent time gives a consistent effect
- Do not take two 15mg capsules to make a higher dose. That means taking a strength nobody has assessed you for, with the stimulant effects that come with it and none of the monitoring
- Go easy on coffee and energy drinks. They add to the same effects — the racing heart and the jitteriness — and most people need less than usual while taking this
- If you miss a dose, skip it and take the next one the following morning. Never take two
- If you are sick shortly after taking it, do not take another capsule. Wait until the next morning and tell us if it keeps happening
- If you work nights, speak to your prescriber about timing rather than working it out yourself. The rule is that it goes at the start of your waking day, not at the start of the clock’s
- Have your blood pressure checked before starting and while you are on it. Any pharmacy can do this and ours will do it without an appointment
What to Expect, Week by Week
The first week is the loudest, though generally less so at this strength than at 30mg. Dry mouth arrives almost immediately and for most people never entirely goes. Sleep is often poor for the first few nights. You may feel wired or on edge, and your heart may feel faster than usual. Appetite usually drops within a day or two.
Weeks two to four are the useful ones. The stimulant effects generally settle while the appetite suppression continues. This is the window the medicine exists to create, and what you do with it decides everything that follows — the eating patterns, the portion sizes and the routines you build now are what remain when the medicine stops.
After that, the effect fades. The body adapts, appetite returns, and the temptation is to take more. That is the point at which a prescriber should be reviewing you rather than renewing you, and it is the most important appointment in the course.
What to Keep an Eye On
- Blood pressure and pulse — at least in the first fortnight, and again if the dose changes. Write the numbers down rather than trusting your memory of them
- Sleep — how long, and how easily you fall asleep. Persistent poor sleep is a reason to talk to your prescriber, not to add a sleeping tablet
- Mood — irritability, anxiety or low mood that is new since starting
- Weight — weekly at most, same time of day. Daily weighing measures water, not fat
- Your eating — specifically whether you are eating enough. Suppressed appetite makes it easy to eat far too little, which loses muscle rather than fat and leaves you exhausted
Side Effects, and the Ones That Mean Stop
Common and usually manageable: dry mouth, difficulty sleeping, restlessness or feeling wired, a faster heartbeat, headache, constipation, dizziness, irritability and a change in how things taste. They are generally milder at this strength than at 30mg, and most settle over the first week or two. Dry mouth is the one almost everybody gets.
Worth telling us about, though not usually urgent: constipation that is not shifting, nausea, a dry or gritty feeling in the eyes, reduced interest in sex, tremor, or feeling flat and tired rather than energised.
Stop taking it and get medical attention the same day if you have: chest pain or pressure, a pounding or irregular heartbeat, breathlessness that is new or getting worse, swelling of the ankles or legs, fainting or near-fainting, a severe headache that will not settle, or a marked change in mood. Breathlessness and swelling in particular should never be waited out, because the rare complications of this class of medicine begin that way. A lower dose does not remove that risk.
Tell us about any side effect, including the minor ones. We report them and they go into your record, which is how the next prescribing decision gets made properly — including the decision about whether to stay at this strength.
If You Have Diabetes
This section matters and it is short. Eating less changes how much insulin or how many tablets you need, and the change can arrive faster than the weight loss does.
Test more often than usual for the first two weeks, and tell whoever manages your diabetes that you have started this before you take the first capsule rather than afterwards. Doses often need reducing. A low blood sugar because your food intake dropped and your insulin did not is the most predictable problem on this page, and it is entirely avoidable if somebody is watching for it.
Driving, Work and Machinery
Phentermine can cause dizziness, blurred vision and poor concentration, particularly in the first week and particularly if your sleep has suffered. Do not drive or operate machinery until you know how it affects you, and take that seriously for a week rather than an afternoon. Poor sleep plus a stimulant is a worse combination behind a wheel than either alone.
Travelling With It
Phentermine is a controlled medicine in most countries, and carrying it across a border is not governed by the rules that apply to buying it here.
Keep it in the original labelled pack, carry a copy of your prescription, and check the destination country’s rules before you travel. Several countries where it is legal on prescription still treat an unaccompanied supply as an import offence, and some prohibit it outright. This is one of the few things on this page where getting it wrong is a legal problem rather than a medical one. We cannot send it out of Kenya for you, and posting medicines to yourself abroad is generally an offence at the receiving end.
Dependence, and Why It Is Short-Term Only
Phentermine is related to the amphetamines and it can be habit-forming. That is not a caution added for the sake of it; it is the reason the licence is for short-term use and the reason a prescriber will not simply keep renewing it.
The appetite suppression also fades. The body adapts, the effect weakens, and the temptation at that point is to take more. At this strength that temptation has an obvious shape — taking a second capsule — and it is the wrong move. If it has stopped working, that is a conversation with your prescriber, not an arithmetic problem to solve at home.
We track what we supply, across orders rather than one at a time, and a request that arrives earlier than expected will be held for a pharmacist to look at. That is not suspicion of you. It is the single most useful safety check available with this medicine.
Stopping, and What Happens Next
Do not stop abruptly without speaking to your prescriber, particularly if you have been taking it for a while. Most people come off it without difficulty, but tiredness, low mood and a sharp return of appetite are common in the first week or two, and knowing that in advance is most of the answer to it.
Plan the ending before the beginning. The most useful thing you can do on the day you start is decide what happens in the week after you stop — what you will eat, who is helping, what the routine looks like. Weight regained when nothing else has changed is not a personal failure; it is the medicine working exactly as described. Come and see us before you finish the pack rather than after, because there is a great deal that helps at that point and none of it is a capsule.
Telling Other Healthcare Professionals
Mention that you are taking phentermine to any doctor, dentist, pharmacist or nurse who treats you while you are on it, and for a couple of weeks afterwards. It matters most before an operation or any procedure involving anaesthetic, because stimulants interact with anaesthetic agents and with the medicines used to manage blood pressure during surgery — and your dentist needs to know for the same reason, since dental local anaesthetics commonly contain adrenaline. Carry a written note of the name and strength; it is easier than remembering under pressure.
Storage, Sharing and Disposal
- Keep it in the original pack, somewhere cool and dry, out of sight and reach of children
- Never share it, not with family and not with a friend who asked. It was prescribed against your heart, your blood pressure and your history, none of which are theirs — and passing on a controlled medicine is an offence as well as a risk
- Do not keep leftovers for next time. A course that ended is a course that ended, and a part-pack in a drawer is how this reaches somebody it was never meant for
- Bring unused capsules back to us. It is free, it takes a minute, and it is the right place for them. Do not put them in household waste
What It Will Not Do
- It is not for cosmetic weight loss. If your weight is in a healthy range, the risks are real and the benefit is not, and no prescriber should be writing this for you
- It will not work without the rest of it. Food, movement and sleep are what produce the result. This makes the first part easier
- It is not a long-term answer. Weight regained after stopping is common, and planning for that from the first week is what separates the people who keep the change from the people who do not
- It will not treat the reasons behind the eating. If food is how you manage stress, boredom or unhappiness, suppressing appetite for twelve weeks does not touch that, and the work that does is worth starting alongside rather than afterwards
See Our Doctor, or Talk to Our Pharmacist
HealthAlone is a pharmacist-led health ecosystem licensed by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board. If you are on this page because you are about to start Duromine, bring us the full list of what else you take — prescribed, over the counter, herbal and supplements — and we will go through it properly before your first capsule rather than after a problem. We will also check your blood pressure while you are standing there, which takes two minutes and gives you the number everything later gets measured against.
If you are here because you want help with weight and have no prescription, book a consultation with our doctor. They will take a proper history, check your blood pressure and your heart, and tell you whether a medicine has any part to play in this at all. Sometimes it does. Often something else does more, and costs less, and carries none of the cautions on this page. Either way you will get an answer from somebody qualified to give one rather than from a product listing.
There is also a great deal we can do without a prescription, and our pharmacist will tell you honestly where a medicine fits and where it does not.
Book a consultation on this site, or ask our pharmacist at Kahawa Sukari Shopping Center, Nairobi.
Common Questions
Can I get this without a prescription?
Not without one, and not by asking differently — we verify every prescription before anything is dispensed, and no payment is taken until a pharmacist has approved it. What we can do is book you a consultation with our doctor, who will decide whether this medicine is appropriate for you. That is a real assessment, not a form to fill in, and it is the honest route rather than the closed door.
How long does the verification take?
Usually within working hours on the same day. If the image is unclear, or a detail is missing, we will come back to you rather than guess, and that adds time. A clear photograph of the whole prescription, flat and in good light, is the single thing that speeds this up.
What if my prescription is declined?
You will be told why, in plain terms, and no money will have been taken. Common reasons are an unclear image, a prescription in somebody else’s name, a strength that does not match what was requested, or a date outside the valid period. Most are fixable.
Will you send it outside Kenya?
No. We supply prescription medicines within Kenya only, to any address in Kenya, and nowhere else. This is not a shipping limitation we can be talked round, and posting a controlled medicine abroad is generally an offence at the receiving end as well as this one.
Is 15mg strong enough to work?
For a great many people, yes. It is a genuine therapeutic dose rather than a starter sample, and if it is controlling your appetite enough to let you change what you eat, it is the right dose for you. More medicine is not more result; it is more side effects. Your prescriber decides, and they will usually want to see how this strength goes first.
Can I take two capsules instead of asking for 30mg?
No. Doubling the dose yourself means taking a strength nobody has assessed you for, with the stimulant effects that come with it and none of the monitoring. If a higher dose is appropriate, it comes as a prescription for a higher dose. We dispense what the prescription says, and we will not substitute one strength for the other.
Is it addictive?
It can be. Phentermine is related to the amphetamines and has genuine dependency potential, which is why it is licensed for short-term use and why we track supply across orders rather than order by order. If you feel you need more than was prescribed, that is the moment to call us.
Can I drink coffee while taking it?
You can, but most people find they want less. Caffeine adds to the same stimulant effects, so the racing heart, the restlessness and the poor sleep all get worse with it. If you are struggling to sleep, the coffee is the first thing to cut.
Can I take a cold or flu remedy with it?
Check with us first. Many contain a decongestant such as pseudoephedrine, which is a stimulant, and combining it with phentermine can push your blood pressure and heart rate up sharply. This is the interaction people walk into by accident, because nobody thinks of a flu tablet as a stimulant.
Can I drink alcohol?
Better not, particularly early on. Alcohol worsens the dizziness and the poor sleep, and it makes the effects on your heart less predictable. It also tends to undo the eating changes the medicine is there to support.
Can I drive?
Not until you know how it affects you. It can cause dizziness, blurred vision and poor concentration, especially in the first week and especially if you have not been sleeping. Give it a week of ordinary days before you rely on yourself behind a wheel.
Can I take it if I have diabetes?
Often yes, with supervision, but tell whoever manages your diabetes before you start rather than afterwards. Eating less changes how much insulin or how many tablets you need, and that change can arrive before the weight loss does. Test more often for the first fortnight.
Can I take it with my blood pressure tablets?
Ask before you start. Phentermine raises blood pressure and can work against what your tablets are doing, and some combinations need avoiding altogether. Bring your full list of medicines to our pharmacist and we will check it.
What if I am having surgery or going to the dentist?
Tell them you are taking it, and tell them the strength. Stimulants interact with anaesthetic agents and with dental local anaesthetics, which commonly contain adrenaline. A written note of the name and dose in your wallet is easier than remembering under pressure.
Can I travel with it?
Within Kenya, yes, in the original labelled pack with a copy of your prescription. Across a border, check the destination country’s rules first — several treat carrying it as an import offence even where it is legal on prescription there.
What happens when I stop?
Appetite returns, and weight comes back unless something else has changed in the meantime. Tiredness and low mood are common for a week or two. That is the ordinary outcome rather than a failure, and it is why the weeks on the medicine are the ones that matter. Do not stop abruptly without speaking to your prescriber.
How do I dispose of what I do not use?
Bring it back to us. Do not keep leftover capsules for next time, do not pass them to anybody else, and do not put them in household waste. Returning unused medicine to a pharmacy is free and it is the right thing to do with this one in particular.
