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I HATE having to do my shot. Every time I tend to feel less and less motivated to do it. I try to push myself into "bucking up and doing it" and I just hate it. I don't fear it, it just feels awkward and uncomfortable to hurt myself and I am not all that flexible because of an arm injury I worry that I might mess up. I despise doing my own shots and every time I do it it does NOT get any easier.

My GP will not do it for me because it was prescribed by my endo. I also don't want to have to pay a lot of money to get this done every other week.

Is there a free clinic or something I can have this done at?

My insurance is with Kaiser, and in the nurse treatment room they do it for free, you just have to pay for the T and needle.

But I totally understand not wanting to do it yourself.  took me forever to be able to.  I also had a friend who was a registered nurse, and he gave me my shots for a while.  Do you have any trans friends who are brave enough to give you your shots for you?  Or just brave and safe friends in general?  idk how you'd feel about that though.  If I trusted the friend, I'd be fine with it.

For me, though, my shots are still painful and I still hate them.  Usually I will watch TV or something to distract me and I push the needle into my thigh so slowly that it takes like 5 mins to get it in all the way.  this helps me to take the pain more slowly and pause when it hurts. And the TV distracts me from the pain and time passing too.

Quote from: Mr.Rainey on December 14, 2012, 02:29:09 AM
I HATE having to do my shot. Every time I tend to feel less and less motivated to do it. I try to push myself into "bucking up and doing it" and I just hate it. I don't fear it, it just feels awkward and uncomfortable to hurt myself and I am not all that flexible because of an arm injury I worry that I might mess up. I despise doing my own shots and every time I do it it does NOT get any easier.


My GP will not do it for me because it was prescribed by my endo. I also don't want to have to pay a lot of money to get this done every other week.

Is there a free clinic or something I can have this done at?

I think it would be incredibly hard to self inflict pain, so I understand not wanting to do the shot yourself.  With that said, do you have ANYONE you are close to or live with that would be willing to do it for you(that you trust of course)?  It doesn't have to be a medical professional that gives you your shot, anyone can do it if you show them how.  I had a friend in college who had to have insulin shots and I used to do it for her sometimes...and I am not a nurse or a doctor.  Good luck, I hope you can find someone to help you.

Well, if you've got anyone who's had any kind of medical education; a nurse, heck, even a vet tech.
But if you're comfortable with it and have someone trustworthy enough, even just a family member or a friend - I don't know how they feel about your use of injections, but hey, it's worth a try.
If you don't know anyone who already knows how to do intramuscular shots, I would either inform them myself as my doctor informed me, or I'm sure there's videos on Youtube that explain proper procedure.
I'd be too lazy to drive to a clinic every other week, but maybe that's just me.

do you  have any emt or nurse friends? or a friend you think you could teach how to do it? if i couldnt do my shot i have an emt friend who i could probably get to do it for me.

My local doctor's office does it for free.

I was wondering the same, as I feel the same way except with a lot of anxiety.
The first few months of starting t I had a trusted close friend do it. But then a significant other was doing it for me, and in times where neither was available I had an old friend who was a certified medical assistant do it. And when I'd worry about not having any of them I had a couple friends who were up for it. Just follow the correct instructions for the way you're supposed to do your shot.
But things happened and I had no one at all, and I ended up absolutely having to do it myself for the past six months or so.. and let me say that it has not gotten to a point where there's no anxiety. It's literally a pain in the butt every time.
The way I got myself to do it the first few times was I watched a couple of videos on YouTube. There was this one where this guy was talking about how to get through the anxiety and his video helped me a lot. Another video was a nurse talking to you showing step by step and ways to do it.
Here's the tips I remember. Try doing it right after you shower as your body is relaxed and your mind is calm. Listen to some music while you are doing it, I have found rock to be most helpful to stab myself. Breath in and out slowly. And just go for it.

Quote from: JohnAlex on December 14, 2012, 02:41:02 AM
For me, though, my shots are still painful and I still hate them.  Usually I will watch TV or something to distract me and I push the needle into my thigh so slowly that it takes like 5 mins to get it in all the way.  this helps me to take the pain more slowly and pause when it hurts.

I don't know about other guys, but I have had a couple of people tell me to push in the needle very slowly because it hurts less that way. Yet the only time I've consistently had painful shots is when I've followed this advice. I tried the slow way a few times and went back to just driving it in. I barely feel anything when I just "stab" myself--sometimes I don't feel anything. With this technique, I've had cringeworthy pain only a couple of times in nearly four years. But then, everyone is different.

Rainey, where do you inject?

Quote from: Arch on December 14, 2012, 11:41:32 PM
I don't know about other guys, but I have had a couple of people tell me to push in the needle very slowly because it hurts less that way. Yet the only time I've consistently had painful shots is when I've followed this advice. I tried the slow way a few times and went back to just driving it in. I barely feel anything when I just "stab" myself--sometimes I don't feel anything. With this technique, I've had cringeworthy pain only a couple of times in nearly four years. But then, everyone is different.

When I "stab" the needle in, it hurts SO bad. but only for a split second. so it's not that bad.
The problem for me is that I flit or jerk from the pain.  and that makes things worse. and I'm also terrified of pain.  So I ended up having a lot of anxiety before each shot in anticipation for the pain.  but when I go slowly, I can breathe slowly to relax myself.

Quote from: JohnAlex on December 14, 2012, 11:51:33 PM
When I "stab" the needle in, it hurts SO bad. but only for a split second. so it's not that bad.
The problem for me is that I flit or jerk from the pain.  and that makes things worse. and I'm also terrified of pain.  So I ended up having a lot of anxiety before each shot in anticipation for the pain.  but when I go slowly, I can breathe slowly to relax myself.

I'm glad you found a way to make the shots work. If I had to push the needle in slowly, I would have a hard time doing it every week!

I know I have mentioned this before and well- I'm not sure if anyone's doctors will be open to it or anything but I think it is worth throwing out there. I do my shots subcutaneously and it's very easy and quite painless. I inject into my "love handle" fat and the needle I use is only 25g (I don't think this violates the rules so please, let me know if it does.)

Maybe some of you can ask your doctors about that? I think it would alleviate a lot of your mental troubles with intramuscular shots (not that I have any experience with those but they do sound difficult from what I have read on these boards.)

Cheers~

Quote from: Silver on December 15, 2012, 03:46:18 AM
I know I have mentioned this before and well- I'm not sure if anyone's doctors will be open to it or anything but I think it is worth throwing out there. I do my shots subcutaneously and it's very easy and quite painless. I inject into my "love handle" fat and the needle I use is only 25g (I don't think this violates the rules so please, let me know if it does.)

Maybe some of you can ask your doctors about that? I think it would alleviate a lot of your mental troubles with intramuscular shots (not that I have any experience with those but they do sound difficult from what I have read on these boards.)

Cheers~

That's interesting because my doctor specifically told me that it can not be subcutaneously and must be intramuscular.  Something about the T needs to get into the muscle to work properly?  Once I was given 1" needles, and the nurse giving me my chot was not okay with that and said I should definitely go get 1.5" needles just to make sure it goes deep enough to get into the muscle.

But if you've had no problems with the rate of changes you are seeing on T, that's very interesting to me.

It seems to be working fine and I have been having my blood tested regularly (well not so much anymore- mostly at first to ensure that I wasn't having any negative reactions) and my T levels were good.

I have a change thread lost somewhere in just for us if you are curious.

Do you have any friends with medical training? Or someone that doesnt but you still trust to do it?
Also if you're in college, some college nurse people will do it for you.

Quote from: Arch on December 14, 2012, 11:41:32 PM
Rainey, where do you inject?

Usually my glutes but when I am dealing with that time of the month I use my arm (Nurse says I have enough muscle to do so) and I HATE even having my thighs touched so the idea of putting a needle there is a big no.

I use 18 ga to inject. It doesn't hurt badly but it definitely does not feel good.

I think some of my lack of motivation is that my monthly crap hasn't stopped and has barely waned. I am seeing my Endo at the end of the month so hopefully she can help. It just makes me feel so ->-bleeped-<-ty that I have to go through it and I wonder if it will ever end. It is the most horrible thing to go thru and there is no end in sight. I fear surgery so much that I don't think that I could even get a hysto without someone forcibly taking me to get it done. I know eventually I will "man up" and do it but right now I am really afraid. 

Also no one I know could do the shots exept my FWB and I don't want to rely on my FWB because if something goes south with her then I am on my own again.