Dosage help please

[Whatoflife]

I’m on 12.5 monjaro
I get regular mild side effects from previous doses that I can manage and carry on as normal.

However, when I went up to 12.5 on about week 3 and 4 I had horrendous indigestion one week (lasted 1 day) then horrendous diarrhoea the following week that lasted 3 days and left me feeling awful, I skipped the following weeks dose completely then had a normal week with no symptoms the next week.

I reordered the 12.5 the following month (rather than going up a dose) and again had awful indigestion week one, felt absolutely dreadful. I spoke to my gp who said they would have advised I go down a dose. They were reluctant to advise though as I don’t get it through them. Obviously I had only just ordered the next month so don’t want to waste it.

Can I take a smaller dose of the 12.5 and potentially not have such extreme side effects?

Thanks.

Yes, you can count the clicks to get a dose of, for example, 10mg.

When you increase a dose, you get the maximum level built up in your body at weeks 3 and 4. It then stabilises at that level. So that fits the timing of your symptoms.

The attached shows the number of clicks (48) to get 10mg from a 12.5mg pen.

Obviously this is not following the Eli Lily patient instructions, but it is possible.

You could also do, for example, 53 clicks to get approx 11mg.

dose required divided by pen dosage x 60 = clicks

so if you want to go down to 9mg

9 divided by 12.5 x 60 = 43 clicks of pen

That’s really helpful, thank you.
Would that be the equivalent of taking a full dose of the 10mg pen? I get confused with the strength versus amount?

If I inject less it’s the equivalent of taking a lower strength dose?
Find it really hard to get my head around it for some reason!

48 clicks of a 12.5mg pen is approximately equivalent to a full dose from a 10mg pen, yes.

@TryForSpring thanks so much 🙏🏽