Bruising is caused by blood getting under the skin. On rare occasion I get a tiny bruise from my Betaseron shot, which just means I've hit a vein or artery instead of sub-q. Mine goes away in about a week. I take no Aleve, don't use ice packs, and I'm thin.

I get terribel bruises -- to the point that people are always asking me about it and questioning whether I'm abused. I have had numerous discussions with the Beta nurses, my neuro, other Beta users, tried every trick in the book and nothing seems to work. And, mine also last what seems like forever (I have about 4 or 5 on each leg right now, and I cycle through all the injection sites, so whats that, like 2 months worth?).

Massage after the injection seems to help "a little."

Misconception about being "thin." Even thin people have fat and the needle depth is still relatively low so even very thin people can inject into sub-q fat. The probem, as I've been told, is the fat to muscle ratio. I am an amature figure competitor (think bodybuilding, just more femanine) so even though I have bulk, I have VERY little sub-q fat so it's impossible not to hit muscle. That could be your problem as well??

Good luck with it!!

I used to get really bad bruising, a few things that I have found to help are doing the injection by hand instead of using the autoinject. Doing the injection slower seems to really help.

I also Ice the area before the injection (I don't think this helps with the bruising, but makes it easier to put the needle in). After I do the injection I rub it in a bit, and then put a heating pad over where I did the injection. I think the heating pad helps the most out of everything I've done.