Laura Plummer, 33, recently attended her first day of trial in the Red Sea town of Safaga, however the proceedings were adjourned when she became overwhelmed with distress, her sister said.
The trial will reportedly resume when a new interpreter is found.
Plummer, a shop worker from the northern English city of Hull, was arrested in Hurghada airport in October when she was found to be carrying 290 tramadol tablets in her luggage.
Although legal in Britain, Tramadol is banned in Egypt and several other countries due to its abuse as a heroine substitute.
Plummer insisted that the tablets were for her Egyptian partner, who required the painkillers for his chronic back pain.
According to defence lawyer Dia al-Bassal, Plummer replied in the affirmative when asked by the judge whether she had carried the tramadol pills into Egypt.
This was misunderstood by the judge as an admission of guilt, Bassal told The Telegraph.
