Long time lurker here, but a new member. Hoping someone can help me with a problem that has developed.
Ive been on testogel for some years, until i switched to Testestoron Enanthate IM shots a couple months ago. 2 weeks ago i read about sub q injections, and thought that would be perfect for me, as Im no fond of needles tbh.
So off I went and got 26g insulin needles. Took the first shot in my left lovehandle, 0.3 ml (250mg/ml Enanthate). Wow, what a difference, i thought. So easy! Everything was fine and dandy until the next day, when I started to get a lump and redness on the injection site. It started hurting too. The lump grew really big, and the redness even bigger. So i thought i just got unlucky, and 5 days later i took another sub q shot, in my belly, 0.3ml. About 2 inches from my navel, left side. After a day the excact same thing happened.
So now, more than a week later, I have a big lump, about 2 inches long and half an inch wide under my skin on my left handle. Its kinda flat, and rubbery. Its still redness left, but doesnt hurt so much anymore. The one on my belly is the same, but its a bit smaller.
So i wonder what happened? I went to the doctor today, and he said its not a big problem, but told me to stay out off sub q injections from now on (i didnt ask him first).
Do you think my lumps will go away? And why did I develop this problem, as i can see that it works great for others?
Try and inject as deep Sub Q as possible. I noticed that the lumps were worse when I injected close to the skin.
Second option, which worked very well for me:
After you have placed finger on injection site for approx. 20-30 seconds. Rub and knead the site for 30 seconds or so. Do it again maybe an hour later.
Because its oil that is meant to be injected IM, I think it is “pooling” in the subQ tissue, and being absorbed slower, causing some inflammation in the surrounding tissues. I think rubbing it helps move it around a little instead of keeping it in a big knot.
This either completely fixed the lumps, or made them almost unnoticeable.
Oh man, thats too bad. So much better than doing the IM shots with a 1 1/2" 23g…
Im swabbing both the site and the rubber on the bottle. So pretty sure im sterile. Very careful of not touching anything with my hands. And i never had a problem with IM, apart from some minor soreness in the muscle which went away fairly quick.
Im using 1/2" 26 g insulin needles. Should i go for longer syringes? I have a decent fat layer on my belly…lol.
I also tried to rub, but only one time. I was a little afraid of messing things up in there.
You think these lumps will go away in time, or will they stay there?
You don’t need a longer syringe, just don’t inject at an angle, inject straight in, or as straight as possible, the more parallel to the skin, the closer to the skin the oil will be.
The lumps you have now will go away in about a week probably. Maybe less. Hot compress will help.
I had the same issue. The thing that finally resolved it for me was not using any testosterone made from a compounding pharmacy that has things like sesame seed oil, olive oil, cottonseed oil etc. When I got a prescription for cypionate from the actual pharmacy (CVS Pharmacy) I never got another ever again. I tried 4 different types of oils and finally landed with the one that works great for me.
I was having a reaction to the other type of oil it was being suspended in.
If you live in the US you can only get cypionate in 3 oils and olive is not one of them.
I do believe CVS only offer their T cyp in cottonseed the thickest requiring a larger needle and the one most have skin issues with. The two compounding labs I use in TX and FL offer grapeseed the thinest so the smallest needle can be used and sesame.
When I took sesame seed oil, I had baseball size hard bumps in both of my ass cheeks. I had injected into my quad and it locked up into an enormous knot for over a week. Interestingly though, they all came at one time after 6 weeks. Out of nowhere, every single injection site for the first 6 weeks came back raging and grew to baseballs. Not to mention, the quad injection was the most painful thing I ever experienced in my life. So my body hates that sesame seed shit with a raging passion.
Talked to the pharmacist and he said that sesame seed is the worst one for allergic reactions and not even sure why it’s prescribed to people. Says it’s the most reaction based test he prescribes.
After they all healed up I went on grapeseed oil. Injected into my ass, and got a bump the sizes of golfballs. Getting smaller but still a reaction. Tried heating up the test. Tried massaging deeply for 30 minutes after injection. Absolutely nothing worked, was pure reaction.
After those healed up, moved on to Olive Oil. This one produced significantly better results. Bumps were only the size of spider/mosquito bites but still itched all the time and hot and burning.
Finally doctor prescribed me testosterone from a general public pharmacy (CVS) versus a compounding pharmacy. This one doesn’t cause even a sign I ever took an injection. No pain or itching etc. Like injecting water into myself.
I got giant welts from SubQ when I injected into the abdominal area. I’ve been doing outer glute now for several months without a single issue, aside from the odd bruise, typically smaller than a pencil eraser.
If you’re using pharmaceutical-grade medication, my understanding is that actual infections from SubQ are rare. My wife is good friends with a Diabetes Nurse Practitioner from a large hospital, and I asked her some questions about SubQ injections. Many diabetics use anything but sterile technique, and infections are reasonably rare. Many will re-use insulin syringes 6-7 times, due to the cost, without issue, and apparently the two large syringe manufacturers (BD and Novo Nordisk) have engineered their insulin pins to withstand this repeated use, although they would never indicate this in their usage guidelines. Apparently the Canadian guidelines for Insulin SubQ injections don’t even call for an alcohol prep pad. I found this really interesting.
Do you mean you take it SubQ at the glutes instead? Or IM? If SubQ…how can it be that there are so much difference in just changing the spot?
My giant lumps has started to get smaller. The first one has shrunk form 2 inches to about 1/2 inch. So it seems that they are slowly disappearing, thank god. Has only taken IM after this, but i wish i can find a good solution for taking it SubQ, so much easier. I have to try to get hold of something with a different ester.
