Do you stretch and pinch the skin before you poke? The needle goes in waaaayyyy easier. I have a hard time still if I don’t pinch the skin.
After a number of repeated shots, the brain should shut that part off.
Then again I struggled with contact lenses until the day I stopped using them.
Also some injection points are more painful than others. If the initial poke against the skin really kills, I move it a few millimeters over and that almost always hurts a lot less.
Quadricep. When I used to trt, I just poked it. Stupid as it hurt every time. Then watched a video and with two fingers, stretched the skin tight and poked it. Gotta say that still hurt. A guy at the gym told me he puts a bag of frozen peas on the area for about a minute. Then loosened up the muscle and injects and says no pain. Makes sense so I may try that.
I’m starting trt again just now.
And yeah after repeated injections I started getting used to it…but for some reason every once in a while when that needle comes close to my skin, I freak out inside and it takes me a while to do it. It’s a mental thing. Just something I need to deal with.
Androgel would be so much easier! But my insurance is only covering Cypionate for now.
I did the gel at the very beginning. It worked for a while when I was still producing my own tiny bit of T.
I gotta say I quickly ended up despising the peeling and sticking routine every freaking day, and the worry about getting the stuff near my wife. And then the itch reaction I ended up with was just brutally bad. IMO nothing really compares to the injections in terms of effect.
I totally get the issue you have with the needles. The thing I do every time is play music. A song I really like. Same one every time. A video is even better. It’s a nice distraction plus it gets you in a specific frame of mind each time and your brain catches on. Silence is bad for the mind when it comes to stuff like this. Best to drown it out. As a bonus, loud music actually acts as an anesthetic (studies have shown!) so you can crank it up or put in headphones and try that, too. But you may find just regular music helps.
I only do quads. 2x a week. More than stretching the skin, pinch a clump between your fingers. Once the needle has broke the surface (hard part), tell yourself to push the needle straight in without wobbling, and you can then let go of the pinch to get a deeper shot.
If you’re gonna use ice or peas from the freezer, make sure you towel dry the surface when you’ve removed it, then alcohol, then air dry. The surface needs to be dry.
You may be able to do better than your insurance. I have no idea about androgel, but I googled for pricing online and there’s a site that lists pricing and provides free coupons.
I’m not sure if I should mention names in the forums here? I have no affiliation with the company other than that I tried the coupon they provide once, my pharmacy took it, and I paid half what I would through my insurance - my Cyp cost me in the neighborhood of $7.50 / ml in 1ml vials. Through insurance it was closer to $16. Would be a bit cheaper still if they’d do the 10ml but I think they’re only doing 1mo supplies…)
Thanks for that info. I bet the logo for the company you’re referring to is yellow? If so, I’ve used that app for other meds in the past.
Actually, my insurance is covering Cypionate 100%. Surprisingly! I did look up the gel before and it’s around $80 or so. But from what I’ve been reading here, the oil injection is probably more effective. And it was effective when I first took it.
But yeah, that app has some good deals!
Wow - icovering 100%…that’s awesome. And yeah, that’s the site/logo.
goodrx I assume?
Yes. Back when I tried Cialis the regular price was roughly 1 for around $90. GoodRX got me 6 for $116. The pharmacy tech laughed and told me I was the only one that used that app for that med.
Holy cow. I guess if I need these in the future, I will go UGL. I have seen 100 for $50. Must be huge profit margins.
Here’s what I learned when I took cialis…
It definitely helped with the erection itself. But…it does nothing to address the lack of sensitivity I was having. Therefore a strong erection with no sensitivity was just not doing it for me.
When I took T, the erection and sensitivity were back and I dumped cialis.
Use goodrx, I paid $42 dollars for 90 5mg pills.