can you tell us a bit about your experience with T? i’ll be starting in a few months but i’m a bit nervous. how do you soothe yourself enough to self inject?
hihi!! ofc, however let me preface by saying i only did 2 injections so far, and i started about 5 days ago!
first off, i was also super nervous! it's very natural to be, you shouldn't don't beat yourself up over it. you'll likely still be apprehensive on the day you inject, and that's normal too.
i do my injection subQ (subcutaneous, into the layer of fat and not the muscle). it's said to be less painful than IM (intramuscular, into the muscle). since i haven't done IM injections, i can't compare the two, but what i can say is that my subQ injections have been literally painless so far!
it was very anticlimactic actually. i didn't even feel the needle go in, and barely felt when i pushed the T in. i thought it would hurt like a vaccine needle does or a blood drawing one, but it genuinely isn't even comparable imo. i had a fairly painless experience.
to soothe myself before my first injection though, i called a close friend to just be on standby as i did it! it helped a lot to have someone to talk to and joke with, helped me settle a lot. if you're scared of pain, i also recommend either some numbing cream or an ice pack on the area where you're gonna do ur injection! what i also did was watching videos from other transmen/transmascs talking abt how they do it, the "do my tshot w me" typa vids, i also had a subQ injection tutorial in front of me as i did mine!
some people play music they like, have a show or movie they like playing in the bg, think also about what soothes you in general that you could do during your first injection.
for my second injection, i didn't do all of that because as i said, it ended up being pretty anticlimactic and a lot easier on the mind than i thought! i think the first one is genuinely the only one that's That anxiety inducing one because of the novelty and yk, needles are scary and uncomfortable in general man.
extra infos: im on testosterone cypionate 250mg/ml, im doing diy (due medical racism, transphobia and lack of professionals in my area), and i use 30g 1/2" insulin needles to inject! im doing 35mg of T twice a week, but im gonna switch to 70mg once a week because it's gonna be easier to maintain i think lol, esp considering the halflife and all.
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