Hi, I took my first estradiol cypionate injection this Sunday after staring at the bottle for about a month and I’ve been experiencing some muscle soreness since. I just want to make sure I haven’t fucked up something beyond repair, and it would be nice to talk to some humans about this rather than just following directions off the internet. I’ll include my process at the bottom but if someone can tell me “no that happens to everyone, you’re good” it would really help me. I understand there’s a lot more that goes into DIY HRT and I’m working towards that too.
Injection process I followed for scientific rigor:
Spoiler
I followed the directions as well as I understood it: using a luer lock syringe, I drew 0.1 mL from my vial using, I think it was a 22 gauge needle, after wiping it down with an alcohol pad, then realized I wasn’t going to get that amount out of the syringe due to drawing it incorrectly or some other mishap, so I drew more of the solution, about 1.5 mL. I swapped the needle out for a 25 gauge, 1.5 inch needle which was recommended for intramuscular injections, then I stared at the needle for about ten minutes trying to keep my hands from shaking due to a currently very inconvenient phobia of them, then injected the solution into basically the meatiest part of my glute. I’m underweight, so I assume my options for injections are fairly limited. No bleeding occurred, and the injection site looks like a small red pock currently
You don’t need a 1.5in needle for an IM injection if you’re underweight. I use a 1in 23g for my testosterone without any issue. Injection site muscle soreness is a common side effect of IM injections, so you’re fine.
Do it in your outer thigh next time, and don’t insert the needle completely perpendicular to your leg. You want it like 15° off vertical with the flat portion of the needle tip facing your leg. Make sure to rub the spot well after the injection too.
this goes against… how any intramuscular injection is done, and does not sound like sound medical advice to me. any medical textbook, government website, or internet source will tell you its a 90 degree angle (vertical).
Going in at a slight angle helps with the pain from the needle breaking the skin, especially if you need to use a larger gauge needle for thick liquids like testosterone.
I’m not talking about a SQ angle, just barely not a 90° angle. It’s not going to change the depth a meaningful amount, especially if you’re using a 1.5" tip.
This sounds like subcutaneous injection instructions.