Lovenox Injection Tips: How to Give a Lovenox Injection Without Pain

by | Mar 14, 2024 | IVF

Lovenox syringe

Learn my Lovenox injection tips to inject it as pain-free as possible. Of the many IVF injections, this one hurts!

I started Lovenox injections after becoming pregnant because I have Factor V Leiden disorder and low anti-thrombin III and protein S levels. The shots turned out to be pretty dreadful. They were the hardest injections for me, including the progesterone in oil shots in the hip. The medicine hurts going in, hurts afterward and tends to cause bad bruising!

What Lovenox injections feel like (for me)

  • Burning, aching, throbbing all at once
  • Feels like you’re being injected with tiny little daggers
  • Feels like someone is pressing on a wound

Lovenox injection tips (to make it hurt less)

There are different schools of thought on how to inject these, but here’s what I’ve discovered personally and from talking to others.

  • Flick the syringe to get the bubble to the back. However, do not squirt it to get it out as you are not supposed to do that with Lovenox. It’s a really small dose and doing that would take away what you are supposed to get.
  • Pick a spot on your belly in the love handle area. It says to inject at least two inches away from your belly button, but two inches away really hurt me.  I would recommend even farther away, closer to your side because it won’t hurt as much.
  • Wipe skin with alcohol pad.
  • Make sure to inject with the cut side up.
  • Pinch an inch and inject the needle all the way in as far as it will go. I think this helps with bruising as well.
  • Here’s where it really differs for each person.  Try injecting fast and try it slow.  Some have said that doing it slow makes it more tolerable for them.  I have tried both ways.  For me, it hurts either way, so I’d rather go fast.
  • Pull the needle out as straight as you can and let go of the skin.
  • Wipe with an alcohol pad or apply pressure if bleeding.
  • DO NOT MASSAGE!  This will cause even worse bruising.
  • Lay down for a few minutes until the pain subsides.  I use a little icepack on the injection site right after and that helps. These little ice packs are perfect.

Results

These tips have helped me a lot.  We ended up getting really good at doing these, and were able to avoid the bruising and lessen the pain.  In the beginning, I could not even imagine doing these every day, but it really did get better.

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