Your doctor may give you your first injection of hCG. They’ll show you how to do this yourself at home if you require many injections — or if you need to inject at a time of day when your clinic isn’t open. You should only inject hCG yourself if you feel completely comfortable doing so.

SUBCUTANEOUS SITES

HCG’s usually injected subcutaneously, into the layer of fat just under the skin and above your muscles. This is good news — fat is your friend and tends to make the injection fairly painless. To do this, your doctor or pharmacist will typically give you a short 30-gauge needle.

LOWER ABDOMEN

The lower abdomen is a common injection site for hCG. It’s an easy site to inject, because there’s usually more subcutaneous fat in this area. Stick to the semi-circle area below your belly button and above your pubic region. Be sure to stay at least one inch away from your belly button.

FRONT OR OUTER THIGH

The outer thigh is another popular hCG injection site because usually there’s more fat there than in other parts of the body. This makes a subcutaneous injection easier and less painful. Choose an injection site away from your knee on the thick, outside part of your thigh.

The front of your thigh will work, too. Just be sure you can take a big pinch of skin and fat together — in other words, for a subcutaneous injection, you want to avoid muscle.

UPPER ARM

The fatty part of the upper arm is a good location as well, but unless you’re a contortionist, you’re less likely to be able to do this one on your own. Have a partner or friend — as long as you trust them with the task! — do the injection here.

INTRAMUSCULAR SITES

For some people, it’s necessary to inject hCG directly into the body’s muscles with a thicker 22.5-gauge needle. This leads to a quicker rate of absorption.

Injecting directly into muscle is usually more painful than injecting into the subcutaneous layer of fat below the skin. But don’t fret — when done right, it shouldn’t hurt terribly, and you shouldn’t bleed much.

OUTER ARM

The rounded muscle around your shoulder, called the deltoid muscle, is a place on the body where you can safely give yourself an intramuscular injection. Avoid injecting yourself in the knobby, top part of this muscle.

Again, this location can be hard to reach on your own, so you may want to ask someone else — someone with a steady hand — to do the injection.

UPPER OUTER BUTTOCKS

In some cases, you might be instructed to inject hCG directly into the muscle on the upper outer part of your buttocks, near your hip. Either the ventrogluteal muscle or the dorsogluteal muscle will work.

Again, if this makes you feel like you have to be a contortionist, it might be easiest to ask a partner or friend to do the injection — just make sure they use our handy steps, below, to do it right!

Hope this was helpful?

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