Counting the clicks and dosage

[threeeggsontoast]

Sorry for what might seem a silly question! I’m on 2.5mg and will probably go to 5mg on next pen. How exactly do you get the dosage in between, 3.5mg? I’ve seen people talking about ‘counting the clicks’…what does that mean?

Also, if I did one week of 3.5mg and the next week went to 5mg, would that be ok? I’m trying to do it little stages so I can avoid side effects.

"Counting clicks" refers to when you wind the pen out to the 1 position before injecting. There are 60 lines marked, and as you turn, it clicks as it turns to each line. A full dose on any pen is 0.6ml, so 60 clicks turns you to the 0.6ml volume. If you want a lower volume, you turn the pen for less clicks, you have to count them as you can't just turn it all the way to the 1 position.

To do a 3.75mg dose on a 5mg pen, thats 75% of the full 5mg dose, so you would need 75% of the 60 clicks, which is 45 clicks. Please check my reasoning and maths yourself.

You can do 3.75mg one week and then 5mg the next, of course it isn't anything the pharmacies would suggest to do with the pen as it isn't the intended usage, but many people do lower doses for various reasons. However, doing so won't necessarily mean avoiding side effects.

If you haven't already it can be useful to use an app like Shotsy or DoseDiary to track your injections and see an estimate of the levels of medication in your system.

You turn the dose knob 60 clicks to get the full dose and the number 1 appears in the window.

To get a partial dose e.g. 5mg pen, if you do 30 clicks you would get 2.5mg, 45 clicks 3.75mg.

Yes ok to step up slower, but be patient and aware of what you are doing. If you step up to 3.75mg and find it doesn't work, consider staying on it for at least a couple of weeks as the increase in dose will be building in your system over those weeks. I went to 3.75mg as a step up dose 45 weeks ago and still on it! 😂

When you do take 5mg, take into consideration the min of 4 weeks you should be on it before increasing to next dose.

Oh that’s all very helpful, thank you!!