Dealing with injection site soreness and working with our nurses to ease your concerns

Injection site soreness is a somewhat common occurrence for fertility patients and can include mild, local reactions or irritation at the site of the injection, and/or pain, bruising and redness of the skin. The level of soreness differs with every patient and medication, so if you are experiencing some discomfort after your subcutaneous or intramuscular injections, it may be absolutely normal or you may need to contact your doctor for further examination.

Here are a few things that you can do to help ease soreness during and after the injection:

• Pre-injection: Use a cold pack to numb the surface of the skin
• If you are doing an intramuscular injection, make sure the muscle is relaxed. If your muscle is tight, it will likely hurt more. (HINT: If standing and injecting in the buttocks, put your weight on the opposite leg and wiggle your toes on the same side as the injection site. Doing this may keep your muscles loose and trick your brain into concentrating on something else)
• Post-injection: Injection sites usually bother patients the next day, so of you rotate a warm pack on and off the site, it will help blood flow to the area and heal the area faster
• Post-injection: Massage or rub the site. This will help disperse the medication and loosen the muscle. There are two important exceptions to this rule: Heparin and Lovenox. Do not massage Heparin or Lovenox injection sites. These medications are anticoagulants and massaging these injection sites can lead to bruising
• If you are concerned about the swelling and redness around an injection site, it is helpful to outline the swelling with a pen or marker. This will help you to determine if it is increasing in size and monitor if and how the injection site is changing. If the swelling or redness increases in size or does not decrease in size, or you experience a fever, contact your physician immediately.
  

You should always address all of your concerns with your physician to ensure that the problems are not serious or to learn how they can be avoided in the future. These conversations should be documented in your medical record.

In addition to talking to your physician, you can also turn to the Village Fertility Pharmacy nursing staff for less urgent needs or for help with your fertility medication injections.

As members of our patient family, we offer you and your partner complimentary, in-person or phone consultations with our infertility nurses at our Waltham, Mass., location. We also offer Web-based consultations through our Village Connect service. Appointments for all of these consultations can be made Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, by emailing nurse@villagepharmacy.com or calling (877) 334-1610 and selecting “speak with a nurse” under the “patients” option.

Here are just a few of the topics that our nurses can help you with:

• An overview of your medications and how they affect your body
• Possible medication side effects and drug interactions
• An explanation of how to mix and store your meds
• Fertility medication injection demonstrations and helpful tips
• Suggestions to help you anticipate medication refill needs and reduce injection site soreness