Hi! I’ve been using gel for several months, but a few weeks ago I made the change to injections. Each injection has resulted in some pains in random areas in my left leg, but mostly concentrated in the muscles below the knee. I also started waking up with muscle spasms in the same leg, which is something I used to have before puberty. The pain mostly subsides after a day or two.
I suspect the issue is vasodilation which I understand is more common in women than men because estrogen dilates the blood vessels, but I wanted to hear other peoples thoughts.
Wearing overknee socks (to compress) helps, as does ice and exercise/movement, which I think is in favour of this being vasodilation.
I will be bringing this up with a doctor in a couple of weeks, but I’m afraid he won’t be able to help much or have someone to refer me to as competence regarding trans stuff is pretty low here in Norway (also I’m diy).
I would like to know as much as possible about what this could be so I have something to present to him.
Thank you for the thought-out response.
It doesn’t sound like site soreness, and if you’re using insulin needles, those are too small to get into the muscle anyway.
Your dose might be a little high, but I doubt it’s so high that it’s putting you at a risk for blood clots.
It honestly sounds like it could just be soreness from exercising more if you started doing that around the same time as injections, and your body isn’t used to it. It could also be an electrolyte imbalance, as some others mentioned, but if you’re young and relatively healthy that’s fairly unlikely.
I usually start with the most likely scenario and move from there. It’s pretty unlikely to be a DVT, injection site soreness, or electrolyte imbalance, so it’s likely just soreness. If you aren’t already, try adding some light stretching before or after you exercise. Applying heat should help, too, if it’s just muscle soreness. I would bring all this up with your doctor so they are able to rule out the more serious stuff, but I would not be overly concerned about it.
On a somewhat related note, when looking up medical information I would stick with Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic for general medical stuff. For trans specific info, Fenway Health is the gold standard (imo), someone linked to them in a different response. You can also check WPATH standards of care 8, but that’s meant as more of a reference for medical professionals and it might be a bit dense.
Please let us know how it goes, and keep asking questions! It’s best to get from medical professionals, but sadly folks like us don’t always have that luxury.
Yeah, I suspect it’s just dehydration and electrolyte imbalance from the increased exercise - I had a similar thing happen when I went from sedentary to regular exercise.