Skin reaction - should I be worried?

[Springbaby2023]

For the last three jabs now I’ve had a skin reaction. It starts a few hours after the jab and peaks a day of two later, it’s a large red palm sized patch (maybe even slightly bigger) that’s hot and slightly raised and slightly itchy. No sign of infection and it’s not bothering me enough to take anything, but wondering if this is normal and or if I should worry? So far it’s been disappearing by about day five. I’ve raised it with my most recent supplier but no reply yet.

Pic attached for when MN authorise it.

If you look at the patient info leaflets that come with the pen, an allergic reaction at the injection site is listed as a “common” side effect. So something that may affect up to 1 in 10 people.

You can take an anti histamine, use a topic anti itch cream or similar.

@SilenceInside thank you, I have read that and everything I’ve read suggests it’s normal, I guess I’m just concerned this didn’t happen for the first few and I don’t want it to get worse. I suffer slightly from health anxiety which doesn’t help.

If it’s just a local skin reaction then I wouldn’t be concerned. You could try a different injection site maybe, although no idea if that would actually make a difference. An oral anti histamine would likely get rid of the itch and probably calm it down.

Anything changed? Dose, new supplier with a new needle brand?

I got reactions with a change of supplier meaning a change of needle brand once. Took at few weeks to work out that was what caused it.

Are you using an alcohol swab on your skin before injecting? If so, don't! It is not needed and alcohol can cause skin reactions.
If you are not and this is just due to the injection you could try using a different brand or a longer needle. Standard ones are 4mm but you can get up to 8mm and there is a suggestion that injecting lower below the skin surface may reduce reactions.
Other alternatives are, as mentioned above, using antihistamine in either cream or tablet form or hydrocortisone cream

I had a reaction for 3 weeks.

My supplier advised me to go down a dose. As I was micro dosing and was on 3.5mg, I went down to 2.5 mg for 2 weeks, then a week of 2.8mg, then 3mg, then back up to 3.5. All good, Rash disappeared!

It sounds like it could be cellulitis. If you start to feel unwell or the red patch gets bigger you need to get medical advice pretty quickly.

I had that reaction a few weeks in around around 4 months in.
I was injecting into my thighs, and had the reaction on both thighs.
I changed to injecting into my stomach and haven't had an issue since.

Cellulitis is very painful. Op says it's hot and itchy. This is very common. I had it. It gradually improved and now I don't react at all. Pop to the pharmacist if you want someone to look at it.

As a pp mentioned don't pre wipe with an alcohol swap if you are. This definitely made mine worse.

Thank you everyone, I had used the alcohol wipe on my skin the last couple of times so could well be that 🙈 The needles are also different too so could be double whammy. I don’t think it’s cellulitis or anything serious as it’s literally not painful at all or bothering me much apart from the occasional itch. That said it is bigger today so I’ll keep an eye.

It’s the needle. And it’s very common and it doesn’t matter what you’re injecting, is the type of med. Normally it comes about the 10-12 week mark and then keeps happening for several weeks then stops. Take antihistamines it does help. The day before, the day of and the day after.

@Daisywhatsyouranswer It has literally been the 10 week mark for me! Thanks that’s really reassuring

Like others I had this for a few doses a couple of months in and then it stopped.

Just thought I’d update for anyone else who might stumble across these threads, took a daily antihistamine and it made the reaction go down a lot quicker. Next jab I didn’t use the wipe on my skin, took an antihistamine before jabbing and left it in for 10 instead of 5 seconds. So far just have what resembles basically a small red insect bite, so loads of improvement. Suppliers wasn’t fussed, said very common.