diff --git a/tests/_metadata.py b/tests/_metadata.py
index dbfd66d3e..bce0e3580 100644
--- a/tests/_metadata.py
+++ b/tests/_metadata.py
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ class StubMetadata:
     """
 
     version: str
-    requires: Annotated[list[str], "The raw requirements as listed in METADATA.toml"]
+    requires: Annotated[list[Requirement], "The parsed requirements as listed in METADATA.toml"]
     extra_description: str | None
     stub_distribution: Annotated[str, "The name under which the distribution is uploaded to PyPI"]
     upstream_repository: Annotated[str, "The URL of the upstream repository"] | None
@@ -201,14 +201,9 @@ def read_metadata(distribution: str) -> StubMetadata:
     # Check that the version parses
     Version(version[:-2] if version.endswith(".*") else version)
 
-    requires: object = data.get("requires", [])
-    assert isinstance(requires, list)
-    for req in requires:
-        assert isinstance(req, str), f"Invalid requirement {req!r} for {distribution!r}"
-        for space in " \t\n":
-            assert space not in req, f"For consistency, requirement should not have whitespace: {req!r}"
-        # Check that the requirement parses
-        Requirement(req)
+    requires_s: object = data.get("requires", [])
+    assert isinstance(requires_s, list)
+    requires = [parse_requires(distribution, req) for req in requires_s]
 
     extra_description: object = data.get("extra_description")
     assert isinstance(extra_description, (str, type(None)))
@@ -292,9 +287,16 @@ def read_metadata(distribution: str) -> StubMetadata:
     )
 
 
+def parse_requires(distribution: str, req: object) -> Requirement:
+    assert isinstance(req, str), f"Invalid requirement {req!r} for {distribution!r}"
+    for space in " \t\n":
+        assert space not in req, f"For consistency, requirement should not have whitespace: {req!r}"
+    return Requirement(req)
+
+
 class PackageDependencies(NamedTuple):
-    typeshed_pkgs: tuple[str, ...]
-    external_pkgs: tuple[str, ...]
+    typeshed_pkgs: tuple[Requirement, ...]
+    external_pkgs: tuple[Requirement, ...]
 
 
 @cache
@@ -317,17 +319,15 @@ def read_dependencies(distribution: str) -> PackageDependencies:
     If a typeshed stub is removed, this function will consider it to be an external dependency.
     """
     pypi_name_to_typeshed_name_mapping = get_pypi_name_to_typeshed_name_mapping()
-    typeshed: list[str] = []
-    external: list[str] = []
+    typeshed: list[Requirement] = []
+    external: list[Requirement] = []
     for dependency in read_metadata(distribution).requires:
-        maybe_typeshed_dependency = Requirement(dependency).name
-        if maybe_typeshed_dependency in pypi_name_to_typeshed_name_mapping:
-            typeshed.append(pypi_name_to_typeshed_name_mapping[maybe_typeshed_dependency])
+        if dependency.name in pypi_name_to_typeshed_name_mapping:
+            req = Requirement(str(dependency))  # copy the requirement
+            req.name = pypi_name_to_typeshed_name_mapping[dependency.name]
+            typeshed.append(req)
         else:
-            # convert to Requirement and then back to str
-            # to make sure that the requirements all have a normalised string representation
-            # (This will also catch any malformed requirements early)
-            external.append(str(Requirement(dependency)))
+            external.append(dependency)
     return PackageDependencies(tuple(typeshed), tuple(external))
 
 
@@ -341,13 +341,13 @@ def get_recursive_requirements(package_name: str) -> PackageDependencies:
     `get_recursive_requirements("caldav")` will determine that the stubs for `caldav`
     have both `requests` and `urllib3` as typeshed-internal dependencies.
     """
-    typeshed: set[str] = set()
-    external: set[str] = set()
+    typeshed: set[Requirement] = set()
+    external: set[Requirement] = set()
     non_recursive_requirements = read_dependencies(package_name)
     typeshed.update(non_recursive_requirements.typeshed_pkgs)
     external.update(non_recursive_requirements.external_pkgs)
     for pkg in non_recursive_requirements.typeshed_pkgs:
-        reqs = get_recursive_requirements(pkg)
+        reqs = get_recursive_requirements(pkg.name)
         typeshed.update(reqs.typeshed_pkgs)
         external.update(reqs.external_pkgs)
-    return PackageDependencies(tuple(sorted(typeshed)), tuple(sorted(external)))
+    return PackageDependencies(tuple(typeshed), tuple(external))
diff --git a/tests/get_external_stub_requirements.py b/tests/get_external_stub_requirements.py
index 5d910635f..420e668b5 100644
--- a/tests/get_external_stub_requirements.py
+++ b/tests/get_external_stub_requirements.py
@@ -1,18 +1,21 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
+
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import os
 import sys
 
+from packaging.requirements import Requirement
+
 from _metadata import read_dependencies
 
 distributions = sys.argv[1:]
 if not distributions:
     distributions = os.listdir("stubs")
 
-requirements = set[str]()
+requirements = set[Requirement]()
 for distribution in distributions:
     requirements.update(read_dependencies(distribution).external_pkgs)
 
-for requirement in sorted(requirements):
+for requirement in sorted(requirements, key=str):
     print(requirement)
diff --git a/tests/mypy_test.py b/tests/mypy_test.py
index e1b10fc8a..db505161e 100755
--- a/tests/mypy_test.py
+++ b/tests/mypy_test.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ from typing import Any, NamedTuple
 from typing_extensions import Annotated, TypeAlias
 
 import tomli
+from packaging.requirements import Requirement
 
 from _metadata import PackageDependencies, get_recursive_requirements, read_metadata
 from _utils import (
@@ -277,10 +278,11 @@ def run_mypy(
 def add_third_party_files(
     distribution: str, files: list[Path], args: TestConfig, configurations: list[MypyDistConf], seen_dists: set[str]
 ) -> None:
+    typeshed_reqs = get_recursive_requirements(distribution).typeshed_pkgs
     if distribution in seen_dists:
         return
     seen_dists.add(distribution)
-    seen_dists.update(get_recursive_requirements(distribution).typeshed_pkgs)
+    seen_dists.update(r.name for r in typeshed_reqs)
     root = Path("stubs", distribution)
     for name in os.listdir(root):
         if name.startswith("."):
@@ -404,8 +406,8 @@ _DISTRIBUTION_TO_VENV_MAPPING: dict[str, Path | None] = {}
 
 
 def setup_venv_for_external_requirements_set(
-    requirements_set: frozenset[str], tempdir: Path, args: TestConfig
-) -> tuple[frozenset[str], Path]:
+    requirements_set: frozenset[Requirement], tempdir: Path, args: TestConfig
+) -> tuple[frozenset[Requirement], Path]:
     venv_dir = tempdir / f".venv-{hash(requirements_set)}"
     uv_command = ["uv", "venv", str(venv_dir)]
     if not args.verbose:
@@ -414,9 +416,10 @@ def setup_venv_for_external_requirements_set(
     return requirements_set, venv_dir
 
 
-def install_requirements_for_venv(venv_dir: Path, args: TestConfig, external_requirements: frozenset[str]) -> None:
+def install_requirements_for_venv(venv_dir: Path, args: TestConfig, external_requirements: frozenset[Requirement]) -> None:
+    req_args = sorted(str(req) for req in external_requirements)
     # Use --no-cache-dir to avoid issues with concurrent read/writes to the cache
-    uv_command = ["uv", "pip", "install", get_mypy_req(), *sorted(external_requirements), "--no-cache-dir"]
+    uv_command = ["uv", "pip", "install", get_mypy_req(), *req_args, "--no-cache-dir"]
     if args.verbose:
         with _PRINT_LOCK:
             print(colored(f"Running {uv_command}", "blue"))
@@ -436,7 +439,7 @@ def setup_virtual_environments(distributions: dict[str, PackageDependencies], ar
 
     # STAGE 1: Determine which (if any) stubs packages require virtual environments.
     # Group stubs packages according to their external-requirements sets
-    external_requirements_to_distributions: defaultdict[frozenset[str], list[str]] = defaultdict(list)
+    external_requirements_to_distributions: defaultdict[frozenset[Requirement], list[str]] = defaultdict(list)
     num_pkgs_with_external_reqs = 0
 
     for distribution_name, requirements in distributions.items():
@@ -454,7 +457,7 @@ def setup_virtual_environments(distributions: dict[str, PackageDependencies], ar
         return
 
     # STAGE 2: Setup a virtual environment for each unique set of external requirements
-    requirements_sets_to_venvs: dict[frozenset[str], Path] = {}
+    requirements_sets_to_venvs: dict[frozenset[Requirement], Path] = {}
 
     if args.verbose:
         num_venvs = len(external_requirements_to_distributions)
diff --git a/tests/pytype_test.py b/tests/pytype_test.py
index f4c215a93..9c835a938 100755
--- a/tests/pytype_test.py
+++ b/tests/pytype_test.py
@@ -31,8 +31,6 @@ import os
 import traceback
 from collections.abc import Iterable, Sequence
 
-from packaging.requirements import Requirement
-
 # pytype is not py.typed https://github.com/google/pytype/issues/1325
 from pytype import config as pytype_config, load_pytd  # type: ignore[import]
 from pytype.imports import typeshed  # type: ignore[import]
@@ -200,8 +198,7 @@ def get_missing_modules(files_to_test: Sequence[str]) -> Iterable[str]:
     missing_modules = set()
     for distribution in stub_distributions:
         for external_req in read_dependencies(distribution).external_pkgs:
-            req_name = Requirement(external_req).name
-            associated_packages = _get_pkgs_associated_with_requirement(req_name)
+            associated_packages = _get_pkgs_associated_with_requirement(external_req.name)
             missing_modules.update(associated_packages)
 
     test_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
diff --git a/tests/regr_test.py b/tests/regr_test.py
index b6569f008..67cd954c2 100755
--- a/tests/regr_test.py
+++ b/tests/regr_test.py
@@ -139,13 +139,15 @@ def setup_testcase_dir(package: DistributionTests, tempdir: Path, verbosity: Ver
     # mypy refuses to consider a directory a "valid typeshed directory"
     # unless there's a stubs/mypy-extensions path inside it,
     # so add that to the list of stubs to copy over to the new directory
-    for requirement in {package.name, *requirements.typeshed_pkgs, "mypy-extensions"}:
+    typeshed_requirements = [r.name for r in requirements.typeshed_pkgs]
+    for requirement in {package.name, *typeshed_requirements, "mypy-extensions"}:
         shutil.copytree(Path("stubs", requirement), new_typeshed / "stubs" / requirement)
 
     if requirements.external_pkgs:
         venv_location = str(tempdir / VENV_DIR)
         subprocess.run(["uv", "venv", venv_location], check=True, capture_output=True)
-        uv_command = ["uv", "pip", "install", get_mypy_req(), *requirements.external_pkgs]
+        ext_requirements = [str(r) for r in requirements.external_pkgs]
+        uv_command = ["uv", "pip", "install", get_mypy_req(), *ext_requirements]
         if sys.platform == "win32":
             # Reads/writes to the cache are threadsafe with uv generally...
             # but not on old Windows versions
diff --git a/tests/stubtest_third_party.py b/tests/stubtest_third_party.py
index 65877e9f7..c22c81732 100755
--- a/tests/stubtest_third_party.py
+++ b/tests/stubtest_third_party.py
@@ -82,7 +82,8 @@ def run_stubtest(
         # Hopefully mypy continues to not need too many dependencies
         # TODO: Maybe find a way to cache these in CI
         dists_to_install = [dist_req, get_mypy_req()]
-        dists_to_install.extend(requirements.external_pkgs)  # Internal requirements are added to MYPYPATH
+        # Internal requirements are added to MYPYPATH
+        dists_to_install.extend(str(r) for r in requirements.external_pkgs)
 
         # Since the "gdb" Python package is available only inside GDB, it is not
         # possible to install it through pip, so stub tests cannot install it.
@@ -113,7 +114,7 @@ def run_stubtest(
         ]
 
         stubs_dir = dist.parent
-        mypypath_items = [str(dist)] + [str(stubs_dir / pkg) for pkg in requirements.typeshed_pkgs]
+        mypypath_items = [str(dist)] + [str(stubs_dir / pkg.name) for pkg in requirements.typeshed_pkgs]
         mypypath = os.pathsep.join(mypypath_items)
         # For packages that need a display, we need to pass at least $DISPLAY
         # to stubtest. $DISPLAY is set by xvfb-run in CI.