How to keep an injection site log
If you inject a medicine, whether it's a GLP-1 medicine, testosterone, a peptide or something else, a log of where and when you injected gives you a record to check instead of relying on memory. This guide covers what to write each time, how to keep your site names consistent, and how to read the log back with your prescriber. It works in a notebook, a spreadsheet or an app.
A site log is a record of what you did. It doesn't plan anything, and this guide doesn't say where to inject. That comes from your medicine's own Instructions for Use and your prescriber.
What a site log is for
- Answering accurately. When a prescriber or nurse asks where and when you've been injecting, you can read it from the page instead of reconstructing weeks from memory.
- Knowing when something started. If you notice something at a site, a dated entry shows which injection it followed and when you first noticed it. The log records it. What it means, and what to do about it, is for your medicine's label and your prescriber.
- Checking what you've done. A quick look tells you whether today's injection is written down, so you're not guessing.
What to write each time
Write the entry straight after the injection, from what's in front of you:
- Date and time. The time you actually injected, written at the time, not the time you planned.
- The medicine. Its name as it appears on your label or prescription, so entries for different medicines stay apart.
- Route. Subcutaneous or intramuscular, in the words your label or prescriber uses.
- The site. In the same words every time. The next section covers where those words come from.
- Anything you noticed at the site. In your own words, with when you first noticed it. If you noticed nothing, write "nothing noticed".
If this log is also your dose log, add the amount you took, in the unit your label or prescription uses.
If you forgot to write down a site, write "site not noted" rather than a guess. A gap you've marked is more useful than an entry that might be wrong.
For anything you noticed, describe what you saw or felt rather than naming a cause. Our guide to keeping a side effect log covers recording what you noticed, and keeping it apart from what you think caused it. If something worries you, contact your prescriber; you don't have to wait for your next appointment.
Use the same site names every time
A log is only easy to read back if the same site is written the same way on every entry. Two different names for one place make it look like two places.
Take your names from your medicine's Instructions for Use, or from the words your prescriber or nurse used when they showed you. Many prescription injectables come with an Instructions for Use leaflet, which the FDA treats as part of the medicine's patient labeling. You can also find a medicine's labeling on DailyMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, and our guide to reading an FDA drug labelexplains where things are. If your medicine came without instructions, ask your prescriber or pharmacist.
Write your names down once, at the front of your notebook or on a separate sheet of your spreadsheet, and copy them exactly. Keep the same level of detail on every entry: if one entry says which side, they all should.
Paper, a spreadsheet or an app
Paper works without a phone and sits wherever you keep your supplies. The blank printable injection log on our printable logs page has a column for the site, next to the date, time, medicine, route and notes.
A spreadsheet is easy to sort and search. The same page has a blank injection log spreadsheet template with the same columns, including the site, and no example rows.
An app can ask for the site as part of logging, so it's harder to skip, and keep the history in one place. Whichever you choose, use one log rather than several, so nothing is split between them.
What a site log doesn't tell you
A log shows where you've injected and when. It can't tell you where or how to inject. Those answers are in your medicine's Instructions for Use and come from your prescriber. A log doesn't make injecting any safer, and it can't say why something happened at a site.
Reading it back with your prescriber
Bring your log to appointments, or a copy of it. Before you go, mark any entry you want to ask about, for example the day you first noticed something at a site, and write your question beside it. If your log is in an app, export your records so you have a file to share. Our guide to preparing for your appointment covers what else to bring.
How Peptimes records sites
Peptimes asks for an injection site only when you log a subcutaneous or intramuscular dose. Sites aren't recorded for oral, nasal, sublingual or topical use. Choose the site from the app's list, or pick Other and type your own description, which you can keep in the same words as your Instructions for Use. A site typed under Other isn't counted on the Insights card or body map; only the app's listed sites are.
When you log a dose with Log Dose, an injection needs a site, whatever the date. When you record a scheduled dose afterwards (a past day on Home or the Calendar, or Review All), the site is optional. A dose without one shows "Site not recorded" in Dose History and Home's dose lists, and "Not recorded" on its detail card. You can edit a dose from its detail card to add or correct its site.
Insights shows a body map of where you've injected and how recently, for the time range you pick. Doses without a site aren't included. Pain, redness, swelling or itching logged with a dose show against that dose's site in the Injection Sites card, as a count of doses with a reaction and the reactions beside each dose. It's a history, and Peptimes never suggests where to inject next, or an amount. Injection site history in Peptimes describes the feature in full.
Your health records are stored on your iPhone, and you can export them as CSV or JSON, for yourself or an appointment. Peptimes is coming soon to the App Store.
Sources
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Instructions for Use: Patient Labeling for Human Prescription Drug and Biological Products: Content and Format", final guidance, July 2022, checked 2 Nov 2026: what an Instructions for Use document is, as patient labeling for prescription drugs and biological products.
- National Library of Medicine, "About DailyMed", checked 2 Nov 2026: DailyMed publishes the labeling submitted to the FDA.