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
I thought it was more typical to fill the syringe with air to match the volume you are drawing, so if you are drawing 0.1 mL, you fill the syringe to 0.1 mL air first. If you double it, you are pushing double the volume into the vial than you are taking out 🤔
Also, thought it might be worth mentioning how you press the needle into the vial can make a difference in terms of whether you are likely to core the vial - there is a technique to placing the needle with the hole facing up and then pressing it in at 45 degrees and then turning it straight to avoid the needle from coring the rubber.
And the alcohol pad should be cleaning the skin before the injection, not after - and you want the skin to dry before injecting.
Compare to this instructional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TP0rTlQVao
And if injecting subq it’s not necessary to press air out of the needle and to form a bead at the tip first - tbh I’ve never heard this advice for IM injections either. Injecting small amounts of air should be avoided when injecting into veins, but into muscle and fat it’s a risk AFAIK.