How to Inject Wegovy, Exactly as the FDA-Approved Instructions Describe It

If you search “how to inject Wegovy,” most of what comes back describes one device. That was fine in 2022. It is not fine now.

As of the June 2026 label, Wegovy is sold in the United States as four physically different injection devices, plus a tablet. A single-dose autoinjector pen in five strengths. A higher-strength Wegovy HD single-dose pen at 7.2 mg. A single-dose prefilled glass syringe in five strengths. And the Wegovy FlexTouch, a multi-dose dial pen that holds four weekly doses of 2.4 mg [1].

They are not operated the same way. One is pressed flat against your skin. One is pinched and angled. One is dialed and primed. Getting the instructions for the wrong one is a real problem, and the label says so directly.

This article describes what each FDA-approved Instructions for Use says. It is not instruction from us, and it is not a substitute for the training your prescriber is required to give you before your first dose. Read the Instructions for Use that came in your own carton, and talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist about anything that does not match.

Which Wegovy device do I actually have?

Check the carton. The label distinguishes them clearly [1]:

What you have	How many doses	Needle	NDC example
Single-dose pen	1 per pen, 4 pens per carton	Built in, hidden	0169-4524-14 (2.4 mg)
Wegovy HD single-dose pen	1 per pen	Built in, hidden	0169-4572-14 (7.2 mg)
Single-dose prefilled syringe	1 per syringe, 4 per carton	Built in, visible	0169-1624-14 (2.4 mg)
FlexTouch multi-dose pen	4 doses of 2.4 mg in one pen	Separate, screw-on	0169-4915-32

The quickest tell: if there is a dose counter and a number you can turn, you have the FlexTouch. If there is a plunger rod you push with your thumb, you have the prefilled syringe. If there is neither, and there is a pen cap and a window, you have a single-dose pen.

Wegovy HD 7.2 mg was approved by FDA on March 19, 2026 for adults who have tolerated the 2.4 mg dose for at least four weeks [5]. It is the same device as the lower-strength single-dose pens, just a higher strength.

What does the label say about training before the first dose?

This part is easy to skip and worth not skipping. The Wegovy label instructs prescribers to “inform patients and their caregiver(s) which WEGOVY presentation (e.g., single-dose pen or syringe, WEGOVY FlexTouch single-patient-use pen) they will receive and ensure they receive training appropriate for that specific presentation” [1].

And then the part most people never hear: “If the prescribed WEGOVY presentation changes, ensure patients and caregivers receive appropriate training and instruct them to consult the Instructions for Use for the newly prescribed presentation” [1].

The Medication Guide says the same thing to you directly: “If you are prescribed a different WEGOVY product at any point, make sure you receive new training for the new product and read the Instructions for Use that come with it” [1].

This matters because a pharmacy switch, a change in what your plan covers, or a move to a self-pay channel can hand you a different device without anyone flagging it. The storage rules change too, which we will come back to.

How do you use the Wegovy single-dose pen?

This is the one most people have. The dose is already set. The needle is hidden inside a needle cover and you never see it or touch it.

The Instructions for Use describes the sequence like this [1]:

Before you start. You need the pen, an alcohol swab or soap and water, a gauze pad or cotton ball, and a sharps disposal container. Wash your hands. Check the pen: do not use it if it looks used or any part looks broken, if the medicine is not clear and colorless through the pen window, or if the expiration date has passed. If your pen fails any of those checks, the IFU says to contact Novo Nordisk at 1-833-934-6891.

Choose the site. You may inject into the upper leg (front of the thighs), lower stomach (keeping 2 inches away from the belly button), or upper arm. Do not inject where the skin is tender, bruised, red or hard, and avoid areas with scars or stretch marks. You may use the same body area each week, but not the same spot. Clean the site with an alcohol swab or soap and water, do not touch it after cleaning, and let the skin dry.

Remove the cap. Pull the pen cap straight off. Do not touch or push on the needle cover, which the IFU warns could cause a needle-stick injury. Do not take the cap off until you are ready.

Inject. Push the pen firmly against your skin and keep applying pressure. You will hear two clicks: click 1 means the injection has started, click 2 means it is ongoing. The IFU says the injection takes about 5 to 10 seconds. Keep pressing until the yellow bar in the pen window has stopped moving, then lift the pen slowly.

That last point is the one the IFU repeats most. It states that if the pen is removed too early, or you have not pressed it firmly against the skin for the entire injection, the medicine may appear on your skin or squirt from the needle and you may not get your full dose [1].

The needle cover locks when the pen leaves your skin. You cannot stop an injection and restart it later.

After. If blood appears, press the site lightly with a gauze pad or cotton ball. Put the used pen in an FDA-cleared sharps disposal container right away. The whole pen is a sharp. It does not go in household trash [1].

What does the Instructions for Use say to do if the pen does not seem to work?

The IFU has a short troubleshooting section, and it is worth knowing before you are standing there holding a pen [1]:

• The yellow bar does not start moving. Press the pen more firmly against your skin. If it still does not start, contact your healthcare provider or Novo Nordisk at 1-833-934-6891.
• The injection is difficult. Change to a firmer injection site, such as the upper leg or upper arm, or consider standing up while injecting into the lower stomach.
• Medicine appears on the skin or squirts from the needle. Next time, keep applying pressure until the yellow bar has stopped moving, then lift the pen slowly.
• The pen was dropped or you think it is damaged. Do not try to fix it. Use a new one.
• The pen cap is missing, or was pulled off and put back on. The IFU says the pen is no longer sterile in that case and this could lead to an infection.

What the IFU does not do is tell you to give yourself a second dose if you think the first one failed. If you are not sure whether you got your dose, that is a call to your provider or the manufacturer, not a decision to make alone.

How is the Wegovy prefilled syringe different?

Substantially. The prefilled syringe is a glass barrel with an integrated needle and a plunger rod you push yourself, and it is the only Wegovy presentation whose Instructions for Use tells you to pinch the skin [1].

The IFU sequence: take one syringe out by holding the glass barrel, not the plunger rod or needle cap. Check the expiration date, and check that the medicine is clear and colorless. Air bubbles are normal and the IFU says not to try to remove them. Then, at the injection site:

“Pinch and hold a fold of skin at the injection site between your thumb and fingers. Hold the pinch throughout the injection.” [1]

“Fully insert the needle into the pinched skin at a 45-degree angle. This is to inject under the skin (subcutaneous) and not the muscle.” [1]

Then, keeping the 45-degree angle, push the plunger rod all the way down with constant pressure until the plunger stops. When the plunger is at the bottom and the barrel is empty, the dose is complete. Pull the syringe out at 45 degrees. Do not put the needle cap back on [1].

The IFU also says not to warm the syringe with any heat source such as hot water or a microwave, not to use it if the carton is damaged or the tamper-evident seal is broken, and not to use it if it has been frozen or thawed [1].

A note on angles generally: independent injection-technique guidance developed for insulin therapy, summarized in the peer-reviewed FITTER recommendations, holds that a 4 mm pen needle is appropriate at a 90-degree angle for essentially all adults regardless of body size, while longer needles need a pinch or an angle to stay out of muscle [4]. That evidence base comes from insulin research rather than GLP-1 trials, and the needle in a Wegovy prefilled syringe is fixed. Follow the IFU for your device and ask your prescriber if you have questions about technique.

How does the Wegovy FlexTouch multi-dose pen work?

The FlexTouch is the most mechanically involved Wegovy device. It holds four fixed 2.4 mg doses, uses separate screw-on needles, and has a dose counter, a dose pointer and a flow-check symbol [1].

One restriction the label states up front. Before any of the mechanics, the Wegovy prescribing information carries a limitation specific to this device: “WEGOVY® FlexTouch® is not recommended for self-administration by those who are visually impaired” [1]. The Medication Guide repeats it to patients: “If you are visually impaired, the WEGOVY® FlexTouch® pen is not recommended for self-injection” [1]. None of the other Wegovy presentations carries this restriction, because none of the others requires reading a dose counter. If that applies to you, it is a reason to raise the device choice with your prescriber rather than a step to work around.

Needles. NovoFine Plus 32G 4 mm disposable needles are included with the pen. The IFU says that if you need more, NovoFine Plus, NovoFine or other compatible disposable needles with a length up to 8 mm can be used, and to talk to your healthcare professional about needle compatibility [1].

Flow check. Before the first injection from each new pen, you turn the dose selector until the dose counter shows the flow-check symbol, lined up with the dose pointer. Hold the pen with the needle pointing up and press the dose button until the counter shows 0. A drop should appear at the needle tip. If no drop appears, the IFU says to repeat up to six times, then change the needle and repeat once more, and if there is still no drop, do not use the pen and contact Novo Nordisk [1]. The Ozempic pen, which uses the same platform, carries identical language [2].

You do this only before the first injection with each new pen, not before every dose.

Injecting. Insert the needle as your healthcare provider has shown you. Make sure you can see the dose counter and do not cover it with your fingers, because that can stop the injection. Press and hold the dose button until the dose counter shows 0, then keep the needle in your skin and count slowly to 6 [1].

The IFU is explicit about why: if the needle is removed earlier, you may see a stream of medicine coming from the needle tip, and the full dose will not be delivered [1].

After. Remove the needle from your skin, then release the dose button. Always remove and safely discard the needle after each injection, and store the pen with no needle attached. The IFU says this prevents contamination, infection, leakage and blocked needles [1].

A blocked needle. The IFU defines it precisely: if 0 does not appear in the dose counter after continuously pressing the dose button, you may have a blocked or damaged needle, and in that case you have not received any medicine even though the dose counter moved from the dose you set [2]. The fix is a new needle and starting the preparation steps again.

The last dose. After all four doses, there may still be medicine visible in the pen. The IFU says to throw the pen away anyway [1].

Where should you inject, and does rotation really matter?

Every US GLP-1 injection label names the same three areas, and every one of them requires rotation [1][2].

The Wegovy label says to inject subcutaneously in the abdomen, thigh or upper arm, and that “the time of day and the injection site can be changed without the need for a dosage modification.” It then says plainly: “Rotate injection sites with each dose” [1].

The Medication Guide is blunter: “Change (rotate) your injection site with each injection. Do not use the same site for each injection,” and “Do not inject WEGOVY into a muscle (intramuscularly) or vein (intravenously)” [1].

The IFU adds the practical detail: stay 2 inches from the belly button, avoid tender, bruised, red or hard skin, avoid scars and stretch marks, and if you use the same body area each week, use a different spot within it [1].

Why it matters is spelled out most clearly in a sister label. The Zepbound vial Instructions for Use tells patients to rotate within the chosen area “to reduce your risk of getting lipodystrophy (pits in skin or thickened skin) and localized cutaneous amyloidosis (skin with lumps) at the injection sites,” and not to inject where the skin already has pits, thickening or lumps [3]. The Saxenda label carries a similar instruction about cutaneous amyloidosis. That is the concrete reason rotation is a rule and not a suggestion.

One more rule, for people who also use insulin: the labels say to give them as separate injections, never mix them, and keep the two injections non-adjacent even if they are in the same body region [2].

How do you throw away the pen?

Right away, into a sharps container, and never into household trash loose.

The Wegovy IFU says: “Put the used WEGOVY pen in an FDA-cleared sharps disposal container right away after use. Do not throw away (dispose of) the pen in your household trash” [1]. It then gives the standard fallback, which appears in every GLP-1 Instructions for Use: if you do not have an FDA-cleared container, you may use a household container that is made of heavy-duty plastic, can be closed with a tight-fitting, puncture-resistant lid without sharps coming out, is upright and stable during use, is leak-resistant, and is properly labeled to warn of hazardous waste inside [1].

Do not reuse the pen. Do not recycle the pen or the sharps container. When your container is nearly full, follow your community guidelines, because there may be state or local laws about how used needles and syringes are thrown away. Both the IFU and FDA point to the FDA safe sharps disposal page for state-specific information [1][3].

A used FlexTouch is slightly different only in that the needle comes off first and goes in the container after every injection, with the empty pen following at the end.

Does storage change depending on which Wegovy you have?

Yes, and this is the trap in having four devices under one brand name [1]:

• Single-dose pen, Wegovy HD pen and prefilled syringe: refrigerate at 36 to 46 °F (2 to 8 °C). If needed, before the cap is removed, they can be kept at 46 to 86 °F (8 to 30 °C) for up to 28 days. Throw the pen away if it has been frozen, exposed to light or to temperatures above 86 °F, or has been out of the refrigerator for 28 days or longer.
• FlexTouch multi-dose pen: refrigerate before first use. After first use it can be stored for 56 days between 59 and 86 °F (15 to 30 °C) or back in the refrigerator.

Same drug, same brand, 28 days versus 56 days. Neither may be frozen, and neither should be stored directly against the refrigerator’s cooling element, which is how pens freeze by accident.

What this article is not

It is a description of what the FDA-approved Instructions for Use documents say, with the exact wording where the exact wording matters. It is not medical advice, it is not training, and it does not tell you what dose to take or when to change one.

The Wegovy label requires that a healthcare provider assess your ability to inject and train you on your specific presentation before you self-inject [1]. If you have a device you have not been trained on, or your pharmacy gave you something that looks different from last month, that is the conversation to have before you open the carton.

Sources

1. Novo Nordisk. WEGOVY (semaglutide) injection and WEGOVY (semaglutide) tablets — US Prescribing Information, Medication Guide, and Instructions for Use (single-dose pen, Wegovy HD, FlexTouch, prefilled syringe), June 2026. https://www.novo-pi.com/wegovy.pdf
2. Novo Nordisk. OZEMPIC (semaglutide) injection — US Prescribing Information, Medication Guide, and Instructions for Use, June 2026. https://www.novo-pi.com/ozempic.pdf
3. US Food and Drug Administration. Best Way to Get Rid of Used Needles and Other Sharps. https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safely-using-sharps-needles-and-syringes-home-work-and-travel/best-way-get-rid-used-needles-and-other-sharps
4. Frid AH et al., summarized in “The Injection Technique Factor: What You Don’t Know or Teach Can Make a Difference,” Clinical Diabetes / PMC, 2019. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6640874
5. Novo Nordisk. “FDA approves Novo Nordisk’s new Wegovy HD injection,” PR Newswire, March 19, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-approves-novo-nordisks-new-wegovy-hd-injection-delivering-the-highest-weight-loss-to-date-for-a-wegovy-injection-adding-to-its-already-expansive-clinical-profile-302718982.html