How to Inject Semaglutide: Step by Step, Injection Sites, and Units for Each Vial

Semaglutide is from $99 a month, all-in: medication, physician review, refill management and shipping, with no membership fee. It is compounded by a PCAB-accredited, FDA-registered US 503A pharmacy. Compounded medications are not FDA approved.

With semaglutide this step matters more than with almost anything else, because the units differ between vials.

Moving from 1.7 mg to 2 mg, the dose goes up and the units go down, from 68 to 40, because the new vial is twice as concentrated. Never carry a number over from a previous vial. Check your name, the strength, the direction and the beyond-use date, which runs from first puncture. If the label does not match what you expected, do not inject; message your care team. The math is in semaglutide units to mg.

On a clean, dry surface in good light, away from the sink:

• The semaglutide vial, from the refrigerator
• One new U-100 insulin syringe, large enough for your draw (68 units needs a barrel bigger than 0.5 mL)
• Two alcohol prep pads
• Gauze or a cotton ball
• A sharps container within reach

Pepti ships sterile syringes and alcohol prep pads with every vial.

1. Wash and dry your hands.
2. Check the vial. Your name, the strength, the units on the label, the beyond-use date, and that the solution is clear with no visible particles. If anything looks wrong, stop and message your care team.
3. Swab the rubber stopper with an alcohol pad and let it air dry.
4. Open a new syringe. Never use one twice.
5. Draw air equal to your dose (for example, 25 units of air for a 25-unit dose), insert through the centre of the stopper and push the air in.
6. Turn the vial upside down and draw slowly to your units. Keep the needle tip below the liquid line.
7. Clear bubbles. Tap the barrel, push large bubbles back into the vial, and redraw to your mark. Read the flat front edge of the plunger tip with the syringe vertical at eye level.
8. Clean the injection site with a fresh alcohol pad and let it dry.
9. Pinch a fold of skin, insert the needle, and inject slowly and steadily. Insert at the angle your clinician described. Count to five before withdrawing, then release the pinch. Do not rub the site.
10. Drop the syringe into the sharps container immediately. Do not recap it.

Put the vial back in the refrigerator straight away. A small spot of blood is normal; press gently with gauze.

The steps people get wrong

Using last month's number. The commonest semaglutide-specific mistake. Read the units on the vial in your hand.

Not letting the alcohol dry. It stings and can carry contamination into the vial.

Bubbles. If 3 of your 25 units are air, you have drawn 22 units of medication. On a small draw, that is a large fraction.

Reading at an angle. Vertical, eye level, front edge of the plunger tip.

Two draws for one dose. If your direction is more than your syringe holds, do not improvise with two draws. Message your care team.

The approved weight-management label directs semaglutide once weekly on the same day each week, at any time of day, with or without meals. If your day needs to move, ask your care team; the labels protect a minimum interval between two doses, and changing the day on your own is how people accidentally stack doses.

For a missed dose, the same label counts back from the next dose: if the next scheduled dose is more than 2 days away, the missed dose is taken as soon as possible; if it is less than 2 days away, it is skipped and dosing resumes on the regular day. After 2 or more missed doses in a row, message your care team before restarting. Never take two doses close together. More in what if I miss a dose of tirzepatide or semaglutide.

Injection-site reactions were reported in 1.4% of people on semaglutide against 1.0% on placebo in the approved weight-management trials. Most are minor and local.

The stomach side effects and what to report the same day are in semaglutide side effects.

Keep the vial refrigerated, in its carton, on a middle shelf away from the back wall and the door. A vial that has frozen should not be used. Take it out, draw, and put it back. If it was left out or arrived warm, do not use it; message your care team. More in how to store compounded GLP-1.

Used syringes go straight into an FDA-cleared sharps container, or, if you do not have one, a heavy-duty plastic household container with a tight-fitting puncture-resistant lid, kept upright and labelled. At about three-quarters full, follow your community's disposal guidelines. Never put loose needles in the trash or recycling, and never share a vial or syringe.

The technique on this page is standard subcutaneous self-injection practice, built on decades of insulin experience and on randomized trials and meta-analyses of needle length and site rotation. The weekly schedule, the sites and the missed-dose rules come from the approved semaglutide labels, which describe the manufactured product. Pepti's semaglutide is a compounded vial of the same active ingredient, drawn by syringe, and compounded medications are not FDA approved. The risk specific to compounded vials is dosing error: the FDA has documented adverse events, some requiring hospitalization, from people measuring incorrect doses. Reading the units on the vial in your hand every week is the single habit that addresses it. Lot test results are published at /quality/lab-results.

1. Complete a free online intake covering your history, medications and what you want help with.
2. A physician licensed in your state reviews it, usually within 24 hours.
3. If it is appropriate, a state-licensed, FDA-registered US pharmacy compounds the vial for your dose, with your directions printed on it in mL and units.
4. It ships refrigerated with ice packs, sterile syringes and alcohol prep pads.
5. Your care team stays reachable for technique, side effect and dose questions. Refills run every 28 days, one vial per fill.

Pepti is cash-pay and does not bill insurance. Bloodwork is not required for any Pepti treatment. If your physician wants labs for your care, they'll ask through your account. The step-by-step page is how to get semaglutide prescribed online, and the dose ladder is in the semaglutide dosing chart.