💉 HRT ANNOUNCEMENT 💉
YOU NEED TO ASPIRATE BEFORE INJECTING.
I’ve known many individuals who were never told by medical professionals to aspirate, which is unacceptable on behalf of endocrinology. This is an extremely important step because if you accidentally inject into a vein, you can literally die.
“I’ve never aspirated and I’ve been fine” until you’re not. “My doctor never told me to aspirate” because trans healthcare has yet to be standardized and is a work in progress. “The area I inject in has little to no blood vessels” but there are so many people who don’t know which areas are safest and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
How To Aspirate: Stick yourself with the needle and then draw back on the syringe. If your syringe fills with blood, you need to reposition your needle. If it doesn’t fill with blood, you’re safe to inject there.
Signs that you’ve injected into a vein: — Stroke — Shortness of breath — Coughing — Chest and/or abdominal pain — Low Oxygen — Blood clots — Slurred speech — Headache — Swelling — Tenderness
Literally just aspirate because it takes 2 seconds and can save your life.
Please share this post so that this practice becomes more common!
This is extremely important, I personally know several people who were never told this and had pretty dangerous experiences because of it.
I’ve never even heard of this so it needs to be spread!!
I had no idea people WEREN’T taught this. My endocrinologist was very VERY clear on the fact that aspirating is VERY necessary, and what could happen if I chose not to. I hate that this post even has to exist, because people are clearly not being taught how to do it correctly. I’m glad that it exists for the people who need it, but I hate that it’s even a thing that needs to be shared. This is a very serious issue.
To be clear, it’s not just “not blood” you’re looking for when you aspirate the syringe. You’re looking for negative pressure – that means that when you pull the plunger back, it returns to its original position. If you pull the plunger back and it stays pulled back, you’re not in the tissue, and you need to reposition.
