How to self-administer an intramuscular injection

I am not a physician and this is not medical advice. I am not responsible for any injury, illness, or accident caused by reading this.

However I have self-administered intramuscular injections for many years and have learned a lot over the years. For the first few years I would frequently have pain after injecting which often would last for days. And it was a very unpleasant pain. The pain from a poorly administered injection is truly terrible. I don’t want anyone to have to feel it and there’s no reason whatsoever that anyone should have to.

However I found that the information given me by nurses and medical assistants was basically wrong. Also, I’ve been administered injections by nurses that were absolutely horrible. So, basically, just because someone is a nurse doesn’t really mean shit.

First of all, they usually tell you to inject in the upper, outer quadrant of the gluteus maximus muscle, basically your rear. Ok, but how the hell are you going to do this without being a contortionist? Because its not really possible to twist around like that and, furthermore, the idea of trying to give an IM injection where you’re muscles are supposed to be as relaxed as possible and your hands as steady as possible, is just ridiculous when your trying to contort and twist to one extreme on either the left or right side.

I frequently – more often than not – would have pain when injecting in the upper outer quadrant area and it was not because my technique is bad. Its because its a bad site to inject into.

Another site I was told to inject into – the top of the thigh – OMFG is a horrible place to inject. first of all – I am fairly fit and don’t have huge blobs of flesh on my thighs – there’s basically no meat there so sticking in a 1.5 inch syringe there is a horrible idea. Don’t do it. Unless you’re really heavy and have a lot of flesh there.

One day, after all this pain, I was searching online and found the best information for self-administering IM injections, which can be summarized with the following graphic:

The site I had found – which I can no longer find – said to make a right-angle with your thumb and index finger. Then you take the hand from the same side of your body as your hip and find the iliac crest, which is the top of the hip bone on your side. Place the tip of your thumb at the iliac crest and keep the index finger at a right angle to it so that its pointing downwards. Now traverse down the index finger to about the halfway point. The injection point is below the middle of the thumb and halfway down the index finger – about an inch forward from the line of the index finger.

You will notice meat in this area, which is the gluteus medius muscle. This is the best, most pain-free place to self-administer an intramuscular injection.

Another important point is, before you give an injection, you have to stand erect but relax. Relaxing is important. The muscles easily contract unconsciously. You have to consciously relax and take some deep breaths.  Find the injection site and prepare to inject there.

Do not ram the syringe in fast. Hell no!. One nurse did this to me, stating that was the best way to give a painless injection, and she was completely fucking wrong.  It was the worst injection I ever had in my life.  NEVER ram a syringe in. The speed of insertion of the syringe has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on pain – other than to perhaps INCREASE it if it is done too fast.

Take it slow. Take it as slow as you want. There is absolutely no need to rush or be uncomfortable. Once the syringe is ready to inject, stand relaxed, hold it in your hand, feel the meat on the side of your hip – the gluteus medius muscle. You can pinch it to see where the meat is the thickest. Then – remaining relaxed (I keep repeating this because its so important) – place the tip of the syringe on the selected area to inject. Then press it in. If you do it right there should be no pain. Really. No. Pain.

You might think there should be pain from being conditioned due to having too many shitty injections, but now its time to forget that, because There. Should. Be. No. Pain! LOL

Ok, when the syringe is fully inserted into the muscle and the plunger is fully depressed, administering the dose there may be a little bit of pain, but there should not be a lot. If you are really skinny and don’t have a lot of meat, its possible you’re going in too far, too close to the bone. That happens with me. I use a 1.5 inch syringe but don’t insert about the last .25 inches of it because its too far for me. YMMV.

Once the dose is administered very gentle pull the syringe out, staying relaxed.

There may be some backflow of medicine from the insertion point.  This is normal.  Do not feel bad about it.  It just happens.  There may also be some blood but not always.  Sometimes there may be more and sometimes absolutely none.  Both are normal.

There should not be any really severe pain or discomfort.  Again, I’m not a physician.  If you do something wrong there could be some complication.  But I’ve followed these guidelines carefully for many years, administering dozens and dozens of injections, and do not have problems.

Here are some other really good images of the gluteus medius muscle: