[Scaevolus]

Self-injecting feels like a scary, painful, dangerous procedure and becomes completely boring by the third repetition.

[firesteelrain]

The proprietary injector mechanism like for Mounjaro makes it really easy for users. Even compounded versions of it use tiny insulin needles that have near zero pain when injected into the subcutaneous portion of like the stomach while pinched.

Source: I took compounded Mounjaro and compounded Ozempic/semaglutide.

[kotaKat]

Similarly, I grabbed one of the over-the-counter CGM biosensors (Stelo) to gather some data for a couple of weeks and the initial fear of "holy hell, I'm slamming a needle into my arm with something stuck to it" goes away as soon as you slap the injector release.

Just one little clap sound, you feel a little pat on your arm, and the sensor's already made it where it needed to with no pain.

When you remove the sensor it's a little bit of a shock when you see the sensor wire and realize just how small it was and how you never felt it run around inside your arm for a couple weeks.

[OptionOfT]

Do you still take it? I'm looking for some more information on compounded GLP-1 and their safety.

[Projectiboga]

Type 1 insulin user. One the alcohol should dry before the needle goes in. Two faster is better, within reason. Three about one in a few hundred shots hits a nerve bundle. That really hurts, but resolves after a short while. Both insulin and these GLP-1 injections are subcutaneous not intravenous which once a patient gets the skill it becomes like riding a bike, in that it becomes easier than imagined.

[stavros]

It really helps that the needles are hair-thin and short.

[DANmode]

Are you using this?

[cm2187]

I concur, exactly the way I felt before and after.

[amelius]

Isn't there some long term harm to the skin if you do this often?

[sowbug]

Insulin users would have better answers to this question, since they might inject multiple times a day, whereas GLP-1 users typically inject only weekly.

But in either case, the answer for subcutaneous injections using needles sized 29g and smaller is no.

[wombatpm]

No. So long as you rotate your injection site. My son is T1 and before his pump was getting 4-6 injections a day.

[thaumasiotes]

To the skin? Probably not.

Heroin addicts and presumably anyone else who frequently injects into a vein can cause damage to the veins.

[dgares]

Yes, but only if you do it in the same spot every time.

[nkrisc]

Seems completely negligible to the normal amount of tiny cuts and scrapes you accumulate on any given day.