My Syringes came in via mail today and so I did my first injection right away. Since Im doing Monotherapy I started with 5mg to see where it leads me. This was also the first time injecting myself with anything. It was kinda scary, but next time it will be way easier.

      • Sophienomenal@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        U won’t break the needle by inserting it into yourself, skin and fat are far too flexible to provide ample force to snap it! Take it from a girlie who has been on E since January (and has taken medications subcutaneously for over 4 years), it’s a lot less painful with a single, quick motion!

  • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This came into my feed and I’m unsure what this is about. I see insulin needles and a bottle that says essential oil? Are you injecting this under your skin OP? Please help me understand.

    • da_cow (she/her)@feddit.orgOP
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      1 day ago

      The bottle contains estrogen. Since its not from an official source the label says something different for stealth reasons

      • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        Since its not from an official source the label says something different for stealth reasons

        :( I wish It didn’t have to be like this. I hope you stay safe 🩷

  • ElfBean@fedia.io
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    Make sure you check your levels every so often. I started on 5mg and it turned out to be way too much so I had to half it

    • DaPorkchop_@lemmy.ml
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      20 hours ago

      I was just about to say this! I’ve been doing 4mg Ev / 5 days for about a month, got my latest results back just hours ago and it would appear that my trough level is slightly above the recommended mean level of 1100 pmol/L. Definitely going to have to cut back a bit…

      • ElfBean@fedia.io
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        Good, good. Here’s hoping everything goes well and you adjust to stuff fairly quickly :)

  • Nikkii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    I’ve been on injections for over a year now, with an HRT prescription from planned parenthood rather than DIY (for now, anyway…) Blood tests show stellar results, last one was like 27 units (pg/mol or whatever?) of T and 280 units of E. Measured at the uh, whatever it’s called, the halfway point between injection days.

    The first time I did it, I was surprised how little pain there was, following guidance on how to do it right. Pinching around where you’ll inject distracts your nerves so they don’t notice the jab, at least when doing it in the thigh like I do. It’s super easy, though I gotta be nice and calm and collected or I get too shaky or risk forgetting a step (I recently opened a new vial, but got distracted and drew from it without wiping the stopper with an alcohol wipe first, dumb mistake to make!)

    • Sophienomenal@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      I’ve been self-administering medications subcutaneously for over 4 years, with a prescription. It’s genuinely really hard to fuck up a subcutaneous injection,and watching a single video on how to do it (or reading a nurse’s guide lime I did) is more than enough to understand it. Subcutaneous injection is an injection into the fat layer, so it does not involve hitting a vein or muscle. The most common points of administration are the abdomen and the thighs. Here are the steps, for reference:

      • Wash hands thoroughly
      • Gather all materials including an alcohol swap, the vial of medication, a sharps container, and a syringe (you can use a separate needle for drawing and injecting, but the insulin syringes OP has come with a needle attached, so you have to use the same one for both)
      • Use alcohol swab to clean the seal of the vial and the injection site
      • Uncap the needle and plunger, then pull the plunger to fill the syringe with air up to the volume of the dosage you will be administering (this is to offset the volume lost in the vial by drawing the medication)
      • Hold the needle like a pencil in your hand, with the face of the bevel pointing upwards (so you can see the interior of the shaft)
      • Hold the vial upright, and when the alcohol on the vial has fully evaporated, insert the tip of the needle into the core of the vial starting at a 45° angle with the tip of the bevel entering first, then smoothly turning as inserting to reach a 90° angle
      • Once the needle is fully inserted, expel the air into the vial
      • With one hand on the vial and one on the syringe, invert the vial so that it is upside down (so the needle is immersed in the fluid)
      • Slowly draw medication past the dosage required
      • Flick the syringe to loosen any bubbles so they float upwards towards the needle
      • Expel the air bubble(s) at the top of the syringe so that there is no air left in the syringe (you may have to draw more medication and expel air multiple times with a thick fluid), then push the plunger until you’ve reached your desired dosage
      • Remove the needle from the vial in a single motion; you are now ready to inject
      • Grasp the needle like a pencil again, with the bevel facing upwards
      • Pinch the area of the skin where you will be injecting, holding between 1-2 inches of skin
      • In a single swift motion, insert the needle at a 45° angle into the skin, again with the tip of the bevel entering first (or if you aren’t as lean, you can use a 90° angle)
      • Release the pinch from your skin
      • Slowly inject the medication, and keep the syringe in until 4 seconds after the plunger bottoms out to prevent medication from leaking out upon extraction
      • In a straight motion, remove the needle from the skin, and immediately dispose in a sharps container
      • Clean up your supplies and you’re done!

      I know that’s a lot of steps, but I promise the process is really simple and intuitive after you’ve done it once. I went into an extreme amount of detail.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Well you are braver than me by far. I would be terrified to fuck up

    • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
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      How so? Seems less dangerous than auto injectors people use for other medicines. Autoinjectors are less pleasant for self-use (but more pleasant when using on others - granted I never tried using a syringe on someone else, but I don’t know if I even could outside a serious emergency).

        • moody@lemmings.world
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          The needles are made of stainless steel which is very strong. Worst case it may bend, but it should remain functional so it’s not catastrophic if it does. You can still finish what you’re doing before disposing of it.

          I’ll admit that my only experience with using them myself was clearing out sample vials that needed to be shipped internationally. So I had to use a needle to drain everything out of the vials, which involves poking the needle into the vial several times. I’ve done it many times, and only bent the needle once, and the seal on the vial is much tougher than skin.

        • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
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          Seems like that would be pretty hard to do? Guess I could try doing that next week though? Not in my skin of course. I’m terrified of the needle, but that’s not a concern that seems realistic without some extreme circumstance, like a car suddenly busting though the wall and hitting you mid-injection.

    • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
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      That’s just how it is? Someone else mentioned DIY, but that’s how it works via prescription as well.

      Also, as someone whose done injections of an unrelated medication (not insulin either) in a hardware store bathroom without alcohol wipes, there are far shadier places to be doing injections.

    • Sophienomenal@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      I mean, people inject insulin daily, so how is this any different? Spoiler alert: it’s not. These are insulin syringes they’re using, and based on the needle length, they’re definitely doing it subcutaneously, just like insulin. Diabetics can’t pay for a nurse to inject them every day, nor should they. Subcutaneous injections are incredibly easy to administer; you just inject the medication into the fat layer (not a vein).

    • recursive_recursion@piefed.ca
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      DIY estrogen itradermal/subcutaneous injection is actually safer than it looks especially if the person doing the injection knows the process and has already practiced on an injection dummy first.

      It might look shady at first glance but it’s actually pretty straightforward.