Insulin Syringes and Units

[Kierkegaard]

Yo,

Got an order of insulin needles in, and somehow I didn't mean to do this but it should work out great: they're 25 g 1ml 5/8 inch and I'm using them for subq injections.

HowEVer, I'm not familiar with the "units" instead of mg.  There are 100 units to the syringe, so does this mean 100 mg? 

[Cronos]

Hmmm that's a good question. I'll try and dig something up. I know for my HCG injections 15 units on the insulin syringe is 150 IU of HCG... Which comes out to .15 ml I think. So if your testosterone is dosed 100 mg/ml and it's a 1 ml syringe then every 10 units would be 10mg of testosterone??? I probably just got my math all wrong I'm at work trying to do this real fast...

[PeakT]

Yo,

Got an order of insulin needles in, and somehow I didn't mean to do this but it should work out great: they're 25 g 1ml 5/8 inch and I'm using them for subq injections.

HowEVer, I'm not familiar with the "units" instead of mg.  There are 100 units to the syringe, so does this mean 100 mg?

First of all, is your cypionate 200 mg/ml?  Usually it is. 

Let's make that assumption.  So let's say you want to inject 40 mg.  At 200 mg/ml, that is .2 ml, right?  So you need to go to the .2 ml mark on the syringe, which will be a fifth of the syringe right. 

Now, if your cypioante is 100 mg/ml, then that is a different story. 

[PeakT]

And you gotta let me know if that 25 stings a little I use 27 and it doesn't sting much.  My wife used 25 for IM and it rarely stung.

By the way, if you're thin, that 5/8 might cause you a little trouble. 

[Hydranted]

Yo,

Got an order of insulin needles in, and somehow I didn't mean to do this but it should work out great: they're 25 g 1ml 5/8 inch and I'm using them for subq injections.

HowEVer, I'm not familiar with the "units" instead of mg.  There are 100 units to the syringe, so does this mean 100 mg?

The markings on a syringe should never read in milligrams, since that's a dose and not a volume. 

Most syringes will be marked in ML's or CC's...except for insulin syringes which are often marked in units.  If they are 1ML syringes and they go up to 100 units, treat each 10 units as .1ML...so 100 units would be equal to 1ML.

[Steady]

In the US insulin follows the U100 standard. 1ml of Insulin delivers 100 units. So on your syringes 10 units = 0.1ml.

Why did you go with the 1ml? Don't you inject small doses?

[Regulus]

In the US insulin follows the U100 standard. 1ml of Insulin delivers 100 units. So on your syringes 10 units = 0.1ml.

Why did you go with the 1ml? Don't you inject small doses?

Insulin syringes are marked without volume units listed;  the numbers are "units" of insulin (a unit of insulin is 35 micrograms, though that is of no use to you!) 

As Steady said, 10 units = 0.1 ml.   Using 200 mg/ml test cyp,  you would just multiply the units shown on the syringe by two to get the mg.

I think you will have better luck using 30 unit (0.3 ml) syringes, which are commonly available.   On a 1 ml or even 0.5 ml syringe the markings are a little tight, making it easy to be off by a unit or two;  the markings are farther apart on the lower dose syringe so that it is easier to get the correct dose.

[Kierkegaard]

You guys rock.  Thanks so much for these ideas.

Peak, I've been using a 25 g 1ml tuberculin syringe since I've been doing subq injections, and I have no stinging so far. 

Regulus, I can't seem to find needs that are lower than 1ml with needles that are a bigger gauge than 25.

I like these syringes because the needles are already attached to them, and each syringe (with needle attached) comes in a nice plastic cover deal so I don't have to worry about disposing of them. 

[Regulus]

You guys rock.  Thanks so much for these ideas.

Peak, I've been using a 25 g 1ml tuberculin syringe since I've been doing subq injections, and I have no stinging so far. 

Regulus, I can't seem to find needs that are lower than 1ml with needles that are a bigger gauge than 25.

I like these syringes because the needles are already attached to them, and each syringe (with needle attached) comes in a nice plastic cover deal so I don't have to worry about disposing of them.

I don't know about insulin needles with a bigger gauge than 25 ... but why do you need such a large gauge?   I use a 30 gauge needle to inject both insulin and cypionate with no problems (you just have to be a little patient in drawing out the cypionate.)

[Kierkegaard]

You guys rock.  Thanks so much for these ideas.

Peak, I've been using a 25 g 1ml tuberculin syringe since I've been doing subq injections, and I have no stinging so far. 

Regulus, I can't seem to find needs that are lower than 1ml with needles that are a bigger gauge than 25.

I like these syringes because the needles are already attached to them, and each syringe (with needle attached) comes in a nice plastic cover deal so I don't have to worry about disposing of them.

I don't know about insulin needles with a bigger gauge than 25 ... but why do you need such a large gauge?   I use a 30 gauge needle to inject both insulin and cypionate with no problems (you just have to be a little patient in drawing out the cypionate.)

I've never injected with a bigger needle than 25g, and figured if I have this much trouble filling a syringe with cypionate that there's no need to bother. 

[Steady]

You guys rock.  Thanks so much for these ideas.

Peak, I've been using a 25 g 1ml tuberculin syringe since I've been doing subq injections, and I have no stinging so far. 

Regulus, I can't seem to find needs that are lower than 1ml with needles that are a bigger gauge than 25.

I like these syringes because the needles are already attached to them, and each syringe (with needle attached) comes in a nice plastic cover deal so I don't have to worry about disposing of them.

I don't know about insulin needles with a bigger gauge than 25 ... but why do you need such a large gauge?   I use a 30 gauge needle to inject both insulin and cypionate with no problems (you just have to be a little patient in drawing out the cypionate.)

I've never injected with a bigger needle than 25g, and figured if I have this much trouble filling a syringe with cypionate that there's no need to bother.

30g is a smaller needle. I agree with Regulus. 30g is ideal and easily found on .3cc syringes.

Speaking of disposing, I prefer clipping the needle from the syringe. There are cheap devices just for this purpose. It clips and stores the pointy part and really simplifies and gives peace of mind on sharps disposal. But I don't think they work on 25g, too thick to clip.

[PeakT]

You guys rock.  Thanks so much for these ideas.

Peak, I've been using a 25 g 1ml tuberculin syringe since I've been doing subq injections, and I have no stinging so far. 

Regulus, I can't seem to find needs that are lower than 1ml with needles that are a bigger gauge than 25.

I like these syringes because the needles are already attached to them, and each syringe (with needle attached) comes in a nice plastic cover deal so I don't have to worry about disposing of them.

I never know what Walgreen's is going to give me.  1 ml is the biggest syringe but usually they smaller.  No idea why, but they don't seem to have a choice - you get what you get at that particular branch.

[Kierkegaard]

Steady and Regulus, do you guys backfill your syringes or draw with another needle size?

[Steady]

Steady and Regulus, do you guys backfill your syringes or draw with another needle size?

I don't backfill. I draw and inject with the same needle, its not removable from the insulin syringe.

About every 3 weeks I'll fill 10 syringes all at once. It takes about 20 minutes total. I watch TV while doing it, for some reason 'Breaking Bad' is helping my sterile technique. I have tried gently warming the TCyp vial with a hair dryer and it did speed things up, but it isn't really a problem to just set aside the time and patiently let it flow at its room temp pace.

On injection days I just grab a prefilled syringe and jab.

[PeakT]

K and Others:

Regulus gave a very nice explanation as to how he fills his syringe the easy way:

http://www.peaktestosterone.com/forum/index.php?topic=7041.0