Progesterone Shots

ttc3y

Is anyone else dealing with chronic pain from the progesterone shots? The actually injection in the evening is not so bad but 8-12 hrs later when I wake up in the morning, my hips are incredibly sore and it sometimes wake me up at night. I’m in pain during the night and day.

I’ve done the following to help: heating pad alternating with cold sometimes, movement (walking only. I learned the hard way and discover playing light tennis threw my whole hip muscle into spasm- not doing that again), myofasical release massage (this one has been incredibly helpful to manage the muscle spasms at their worse), and topical magnesium gel to help relax the muscle (I don’t know if it is helping but it doesn’t hurt to try).

Any other recommendations on how to manage the chronic pain would be helpful. I am only a week in with 7 more weeks to go if all goes well with my first FET.

00kim00

I had some great tips before starting the PIO shots, and mine were pretty easy- soreness a couple of days, but given that I was on them for about 10 weeks, it was surprisingly little pain. Here was my regimen:
1. Warm the oil before doing the shots (I put mine in a small glass of warm water for a few minutes; other women I know have put it in their bra).
2. When choosing the spot to inject, I poked around the area with my finger until I found a less sensitive spot to inject (much more important as time goes on; the first couple of weeks were no big deal, but eventually you've used every possible spot multiple times and there's bruising, etc.)
3. Once you switch to the injection needle, make sure you get all the air out- push the plunger gently until you see a drop at the top. I forgot that step once and boy did I learn!
4. After the shot, I had my husband give me a VERY deep massage in that area. It hurts because you just had a shot, but sometimes I could feel it dispersing the oil and the knot (sometimes my muscle tensed and knows within seconds of the shot). This should be a few minutes long, quite hard, and really intentional at spreading the oil. I think this may be the most critical step- don't be afraid of some pain after the shot to prevent the worse pain later.
5. I then laid on a heating pad for about half an hour.

I also made sure to consciously relax the muscle right before the shot. Like I said, there were only a couple of days I felt pain the next day, and I think it was all after a weaker/shorter post-shot massage. Cold seems counterintuitive to me, since that would contact the muscle, and what you're trying to avoid are those knots. A heating pad before the shot can help, too, I've heard. Good luck with managing the pain and with success on your FET!

ttc3y

Thank you for the recommendations. We are doing all of the above except for the very deep massage part and heating the area before injection. My husband is massaging the area but not very deeply. We should try that tonight to see if that helps. I really appreciate your input. ❤️

enaids

II haven't started my PIO yet but my clinic gave me a really specific spot that I should be doing the shot and they said doing it here should prevent some of the pain and soreness. Where the bullseye is on the upper right side. You should mimic this on the other side too. 

ttc3y

@enaids Yes, been alternating between the ventrogluteal and dorsogluteal areas. The deep massage right after the injection mentioned above definitely helps decrease the intensity of the soreness but somehow the ventrogluteal areas get less sore than the dorsogluteal areas this week even with my husband’s local deep massage. I plan to go back and do some more myofascial release massage therapy to help unknot the knots in my dorsogluteal areas. That has also been very effective in enduring the progesterone shots as well. 

knottie61352f8cdef2a63f

I have had painless progesterone shots for weeks now and I only do one thing. I heat up a small bowl of water in the microwave so that it is piping hot (sometimes it is bubbling). I put the vial of progesterone in it for a few minutes until it also gets hot. I inject. Absolutely no pain, no need for massage afterwards. The only times it hurt were when I left the vial in the bowl of water too long and it got lukewarm. Heat absolutely works; the hotter the oil, the less pain. I wish I knew this trick earlier on when I could barely walk from the pain. 

00kim00

knottie61352f8cdef2a63f said:

I have had painless progesterone shots for weeks now and I only do one thing. I heat up a small bowl of water in the microwave so that it is piping hot (sometimes it is bubbling). I put the vial of progesterone in it for a few minutes until it also gets hot. I inject. Absolutely no pain, no need for massage afterwards. The only times it hurt were when I left the vial in the bowl of water too long and it got lukewarm. Heat absolutely works; the hotter the oil, the less pain. I wish I knew this trick earlier on when I could barely walk from the pain. 

I would be very cautious about this. Near boiling temperature oil WILL cause burns. And in my personal experience, warm oil definitely helped, but I did get it too hot once (not boiling at all, I only used hot tap water, so no more than 120*), and it was one of the two most painful injections I had. The other memorably painful one was when I forgot to get all of the air out of the syringe before injecting