Mounjaro: anyone using a reduced dose from their pens to make it more cost effective?

[StrikeForever]

Husband and I have recently reduced from 7.5 to 5 because we’re happy with our weights and just want to maintain. We have both just ordered 10mg, planning to split the doses into 5s because it’s so much more cost effective (works out about £28 per week, rather than £50 ish if we just ordered 5s). It’s now occurred to me that our supplier might take issue with us only ordering every couple of months and they may query it! We use Medexpress.

Anyone have any experience of this? Please don’t post to tell me we shouldn’t use an open pen for 8/9 weeks. We feel it will be fine when kept in the fridge.

I did this. Medexpress didn’t care and I was still able to buy the pens as and when I wanted. I suspect a lot of people are doing the same due to cost.

Yeh i take 10mg and 7.5mg out of a 12.5mg pen with insulin syringes. Me and my partner share a pen (withdrawing with the çlean syringes before anyone has a barny!) And with the golden dose we got several doses out of a single pen each this month. Will be doung the same again moving forwards

If one pen lasts you two months, you can order every month from one pharmacy. One month is your pen, the other month is your OH’s pen. No need to share a pen even.

We just ordered and they queried our order and kind of grilled us on what we were taking and when. They said our last order was August - 3 months and some days. We explained that we already had a backlog because a couple of times we had ordered when they sent a reminder (two weeks after an order), then they invited us to order an extra pen each just before the price increase. They accepted that and processed our orders. So it seems they have there limits! Your experience suggests that two months may not trigger them though?

I am sure I read somewhere MedExpress have a 6 week cut off before reducing dose.

However given that you are sharing pens (not recommended at all and someone will come on to tell you off but I understand what you mean about not using the pen needles at all only separate sterile syringes so there is zero cross contamination risk) you already have the perfect solution.

Choose one person and order every month. As you are sub-dosing it will last both of you the month. The issue with this is the other person does not have the ongoing record and you must make sure to tell any doctor in the rare circumstance of illness. It’s awful that prices and lack of regulatory acceptance about safe sub-dosing make this seem the best option for those who benefit their health so much but cannot afford the extortionate prices to continue and maintain the health benefits on a low dose.

I forgot to answer the actual question. Yes I do this (subdosing not sharing) ordered 10mg pens and took 5mg. Very careful with storage and hygiene. Planned ahead to be with a pharmacy who will let me restart if I have an apparent gap next year when I run out. MedExpress are known for cutting people off suddenly. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to explain my loss between last order with them in May and one I ordered recently to use up some credit. They said I lost too much even though still at top end of bmi. (I’ve lost around 1.5lb week average nothing unsafe) I would order your next 10mg elsewhere while you have a recent order history.

Yes at the moment I 'm taking 10mg from a 12.5 pen so it lasts me 6 weeks. Not doing this every month as worried about too many large gaps in ordering but occasionally I am. I think it works out at £37 a dose rather than £41 if I had just had the usual 4 +1 doses if that makes sense.

Obviously this is against guidelines but 💰💰💰

Honestly? I’d buy one 10mg pen every month and use a syringe and take 5mg each from it weekly.

I’m guessing this is aimed at @Flowers8989 not me as the original poster?
edited to say, I see you came back to answer my post 🙂

Absolutely! Do you use Medexpress?

I have used them a few times but usually switch suppliers each time to get advantage of new order discount

Just order in one of your names? Each person gets a new pen every second month?