I have a steroidal cream that I have to be incredibly careful to keep away from the wife and Gizmo, as well as not allowing it to touch my rolling tobacco in any way, shape or form. I think from brief incidental exposure caused a patch of abnormal fur growth in Gizmo when he was young.

it would not be active for a long time after application.

Are you assuming that, or do you know something I don't? Because chemicals don't completely absorb into the body. They're there, on your skin, and transferred by contact, until they degrade or you remove them, where they go into the water supply for us to encounter again until they degrade, if they degrade.

You sleep in your bed with the gel on, your sheets have the drug till you wash them... It's a whole thing with certain drugs like these. It's such a pain in the ass I don't even tend to use my steroid cream, and that's not as problematic as testosterone.

The curious thing though, if this were an accidental transfer -- which seems a real possibility to me -- is why the wife wasn't affected.