I use insulin syringes to inject intramuscularly.
What would you suggest for IM quad injections? My doctor has me using 5/8'' needles. 1/2'' is the longest I have seen on an insulin syringe, which is why I assumed that it would not work.
I would appreciate any advice!
I use 1/2" needles for my injections (mostly quad, delt, and VG) and they work great.
BD offers a few 5/8" options. If I recall they come in 28g, 27g, and 25g. They don't make smaller gauges in this length because they become a little too flexible.
Lately I've been using BD 28g 1/2" insulin syringes. I like them a lot.
Thanks, I missed those. They only had the 1/2'' BD insulin syringes at CVS, but I tested one and found that only a small drop was wasted (vs. 0.075 ml for the BD PrecisionGlide on a slip tip). I'm sure the 1/2 would be ok, but I'll play it safe and wait for the 5/8'' syringes coming in the mail. The shorter needles might look better once I lose some of that sub q fat.
I wouldn't mind using a thinner needle though. Do you back load the 28g insulin syringe? Out of curiosity, is there a reason you do IM, rather than sub q injections? I just do the IM shots because that's what my doctor showed me.
No I don't backload my syringes, there's really no need to. While a 28g doesn't exactly lend itself to speedy oil drawing, it's not slow enough to bother me at all. Most of us on TRT are drawing pretty small volumes of oil, so it shouldn't take an exceptionally long time to get our desired dose from the vial.
I sometimes do subQ injections if I'm injecting my glutes, or if I happen to grab one of my shorter needles (I've got a pretty wide variety of lengths and gauges). I prefer IM mostly because it's hassle free for me. SubQ injections usually give me an annoying lump at the injection site. Not a huge deal, but I'd rather
not have an itchy lump for a few days.
I've also never noted any significant changes to my labs when I tried solely subQ injections. So I don't really have any reason to stick with them consitently. I don't dislike them, just not my preference.
On top of that, I also kinda like the feeling of injecting into muscle. In a weird way, it feels good. I've always enjoyed needle sticks!