Quick Tips for Giving Yourself or Another Fertility Treatment Injections

Many infertility treatments require you to inject yourself or have someone at home give you injections. This can be a very scary thought for someone that is normally afraid of injections that are giving by professionals. It doesn't have to be a scary thing though if you arm yourself with some simple knowledge and tips.
There are many fertility drugs that are given by injections. Lupron, hCG, Pergonal, Metrodin, progesterone and Humegon are a few of the more common drugs. Lupron is given subcutaneously, which is another way of saying that it is injected into the fatty layer directly under your skin. The other drugs listed are given intramuscularly, which is injected below the level of the skin, into the muscles.

A subcutaneous injection is given either on the front surface of the thighs or the back surface of your upper arms. One good tip is to change the location of the injection each time. This can protect your skin from the irritation of using the same spot each time. Always wash your hands thoroughly before giving an injection. First, clean the rubber top of the medication vial with alcohol. This will sterilize the vial. Take your syringe and draw air into it. Usually, you will draw the same amount of air in as you will medication. Push your needle through the top of your medication vial and push the plunger all the way in. Turn your vial upside down, with the needle in the vial. Pull back the plunger to withdraw the medication. It is best to take in more medication than you need so that you can level the amount out to the correct dosage. If you see air bubbles in the syringe, tap the syringe to pop them. They take up valuable room in which the medication should. Remove the needle from the vial. Clean your skin site, where the injection is going to be given with alcohol to sterilize it. Hold the syringe in one hand and use your other hand to pull up a little bit of your skin. Holding the syringe next to your skin at a 45 degree angle, you will then slide the needle quickly under the skin as far as it will go. Then release the skin, push the plunger in to inject the medication. Now, hold an alcohol wipe down on your skin where the needle is and withdraw the needle at the same 45 degree angle. Easy enough!!

An intramuscular injection is a little bit different than a subcutaneous one. Most of the medications that are given this way come in a powder form that you have to mix yourself before injecting. The powder medication come in glass vials. They will come with a vial of liquid, usually a saline solution, to mix them with. Draw up 1cc of the saline in your syringe and shoot it into the vial with the powder. You will then need to shake it well to mix it thoroughly. Draw the correct prescribed amount into the syringe, the same way as with the subcutaneous injection. Tap the syringe to get rid of any air bubbles that may have formed so that they don't take up any room instead of the medication.

Intramuscular injections are given in the upper quadrant of the buttock, into the gluteal muscle. Holding the syringe in one hand, push your skin up or squeeze it gently with the other hand. Insert the needle into the skin straight in, pushing it down as far as you can and then release the skin. Pull up slightly on the plunger to ensure that you didn't go into a vein. If you did, you will see blood in the syringe. If blood appears in the syringe, you should remove it, replace the needle and attempt another location. If it is clear, then it is time to inject. Hold an alcohol swab at the sight and pull the needle out at the same angle you used to inject it.

It isn't fun going through infertility but it doesn't have to be scary at the same time. Keeping these easy tips in mind can help your anxiety over the injection part of the process. It is helpful to have someone other than yourself do the injections. That may make it a little less stressful for you. Reducing your stress during this stressful time in your life is a good thing. Just keep telling yourself that you are doing all of this to conceive. Keep that baby in mind and it won't seem so bad after all.