Where do you inject compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide?

Where do you inject compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide?

Quick answer: Under the skin of the stomach (abdomen), the front of the thigh or the upper arm — the areas the brand labels name. Follow your provider’s instructions.

Use the dose on your label from your REMEVi provider; this page explains the units, it does not set your dose.

Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are prepared by licensed pharmacies for an individual prescription. They are not FDA-approved, and the FDA has not reviewed them for safety, effectiveness or quality. So the injection sites described on FDA-approved labels are for the brand products. They are still the clearest public description of where these medicines go, which is why we use them here, labelled as brand facts. Your REMEVi provider and your pharmacy’s instructions come first. Whichever area you use, the medicine goes into the fatty layer just under the skin — that is what “subcutaneous” means on each of these labels.

Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy® label (revised 06/2026) says: “WEGOVY® is injected under the skin (subcutaneously) of your stomach (abdomen), thigh, or upper arm.” The Ozempic® label (revised 05/2026) uses the same three areas. Lilly’s Zepbound® label (revised 08/2026) says to “inject ZEPBOUND subcutaneously in the abdomen, thigh, or another person should inject in the back of the upper arm,” and the Mounjaro® label has equivalent wording.

Wegovy®, Ozempic®, Zepbound® and Mounjaro® are FDA-approved brand-name products that REMEVi does not sell. Facts quoted from their labels describe those products only. We name them to orient you, not to suggest a compounded medication is equivalent to them. Sources: Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound, Mounjaro.

How far from the belly button should I inject?

Quick answer: Wegovy’s instructions say to keep the injection 2 inches away from the belly button, in the lower stomach.

The Wegovy® single-dose pen instructions (revised 06/2026) say: “You may inject into your upper leg (front of the thighs), lower stomach (keep 2 inches away from your belly button) or upper arm.” Two inches is about 5 cm; if you are unsure, measure it once with a ruler.

Lilly’s tirzepatide labels do not give a distance from the navel. The 2-inch figure is Novo’s wording for its product; ask your provider if you are unsure where to place a compounded injection. The same Wegovy® instructions name the front of the thighs and the upper arm as the other options, so if the stomach area is bruised or tender, the label gives two other places to go.

Do I need to change the injection spot each time?

Quick answer: Yes. Brand labels say to rotate with each injection. You can use the same area, but not the same spot.

Wegovy®’s label says: “Change (rotate) your injection site with each injection. Do not use the same site for each injection,” and its pen instructions add: “You may inject in the same body area each week, but make sure it is not in the same spot each time.” Ozempic®’s label tells prescribers to have patients “use a different injection site each week when injecting in the same body region.” Lilly’s label says to “rotate injection sites with each dose.”

Lilly’s vial instructions (revised April 2026) explain why: rotating within the area you choose for each dose reduces the risk of “lipodystrophy (pits in skin or thickened skin) and localized cutaneous amyloidosis (skin with lumps) at the injection sites.” A simple pattern — for example, moving clockwise around the stomach — makes rotation automatic. Keeping a simple log — date, area and side — on your phone or a calendar also helps, and gives your care team useful information if a spot becomes sore or lumpy.

Where should I not inject?

Quick answer: Not into a muscle or vein, and not into skin that is tender, bruised, red, hard, scarred, lumpy, pitted or thickened, or into stretch marks.

From the brand labels and instructions:

• Not into a muscle or a vein. Novo’s labels: “Do not inject … into a muscle (intramuscularly) or vein (intravenously)” (Wegovy, Ozempic).
• Not where skin is tender, bruised, red or hard. Wegovy® instructions; also avoid scars and stretch marks (Wegovy).
• Not where skin has pits, is thickened or has lumps. Nor where it is scaly, scarred or damaged (Zepbound vial instructions).
• Not the exact spot you used last time. Rotate within the area.

If every usual spot is sore, bruised or lumpy, don’t go looking for a new body area on your own — tell your REMEVi provider, who can check what is going on.

Can I inject into my own upper arm?

Quick answer: Novo’s semaglutide labels list the upper arm. Lilly’s tirzepatide labels say the back of the upper arm should be injected by another person.

The two manufacturers word this differently. Novo’s Wegovy® and Ozempic® labels simply list the upper arm. Lilly’s Zepbound® and Mounjaro® labels say “another person should inject in the back of the upper arm.” The back of your own arm is hard to see and hard to pinch while holding a syringe in the other hand.

If you inject yourself, the stomach and thigh are the areas every label names. If someone else helps you, ask your provider to show them how to draw and give the dose.

Why not inject into a muscle?

Quick answer: These medicines are labeled for injection under the skin. embecta says shorter needles may lower the risk of an accidental injection into muscle.

The brand labels describe subcutaneous injection — into the fatty layer under the skin — and Novo’s labels say outright not to inject into a muscle or vein. The syringe maker embecta says its shorter needles “may lower the risk of an accidental intramuscular injection, when compared to longer needles” (embecta). Which needle and syringe are used.

If you think an injection went somewhere it shouldn’t have, or a site stays painful, red or swollen, call your REMEVi provider.

Questions about your vial, syringe or label? Message your REMEVi care team or call (702) 352-4746 before you inject.