My Reta journey came to an unfortunate end

meeklady

meeklady

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I've been using Reta for more than a year, and for most of this year I've been maintaining my weight. Earlier this year a rash appeared, and I assumed it was just my eczema acting up. But the rash has now spread across my entire body, and I'm beginning to suspect Reta could be the culprit. Yesterday I placed an order for Tirz and plan to begin it next weekend. I stopped Reta last weekend. At this point I've lost all the weight and simply need something to keep it off. My hope is that a low dose of Tirz will accomplish that without the rash! Has anyone here switched from Reta to Tirz for maintenance? If so, was your experience a positive one?
 
Could this be an allergic reaction?...What dose were you taking?....Has the reta been tested?....Did you also have any tingling, burning, or prickly feeling in your skin?....Was the rash worse closer to where you injected?...

Switching to Tirz seems like a good idea.....if reta is the cause, many of the skin symptoms are linked to how reta interacts with the glucagon receptors....
 
Interesting — itching or any other skin problems never happened to me. From what I gather, quite a few people have switched from Reta to Tirz for maintenance. On the subject of maintenance, the extra weight loss the scale showed may mean I need to drop another 2mg. Friday is when I normally do my main weigh-in, but I was curious to check something.
 
Flash-BCR said:

Could this be an allergic reaction?...What dose were you taking?....Has the reta been tested?....Did you also have any tingling, burning, or prickly feeling in your skin?....Was the rash worse closer to where you injected?...

Switching to Tirz seems like a good idea.....if reta is the cause, many of the skin symptoms are linked to how reta interacts with the glucagon receptors....
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Yeah, the Reta checked out fine. I went through two separate suppliers and got the same reactions from both. I titrated up to 8 mgs, and for maintenance I've been at 4. At 6 and 8 mgs I had significant allodynia, but that cleared up once I dropped back to 4 mgs. There's no rash around the injection site. It began on my legs and arms, moved to my neck, and at this point it's basically everywhere except my back and stomach (my injection spot is the stomach). The itching is intense enough that I've required several rounds of antibiotics because the skin becomes infected. I can't continue this way, so it's time for a change.
 
To be honest, Tirz likely works better for maintenance regardless. Reta puts more strain on the body. A low-dose Tirz can keep food noise and appetite under control, and you avoid the added glucagon activation that makes your body work harder.
 
meeklady said:

Yeah, the Reta checked out fine. I went through two separate suppliers and got the same reactions from both. I titrated up to 8 mgs, and for maintenance I've been at 4. At 6 and 8 mgs I had significant allodynia, but that cleared up once I dropped back to 4 mgs. There's no rash around the injection site. It began on my legs and arms, moved to my neck, and at this point it's basically everywhere except my back and stomach (my injection spot is the stomach). The itching is intense enough that I've required several rounds of antibiotics because the skin becomes infected. I can't continue this way, so it's time for a change.
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That matches what has been described in both anecdotal accounts and clinical trial reports regarding skin-related side effects from reta...I'm impressed you stuck with it for that long given everything you were dealing with... 😳

Over the couple of weeks since you stopped, have the skin problems shown any indication of easing up?

I'm a big tirz fan....best of luck with it, keep us posted on the follow-up and how things go....GL!....
 
BNLFL said:

Interesting — itching or any other skin problems never happened to me. From what I gather, quite a few people have switched from Reta to Tirz for maintenance. On the subject of maintenance, the extra weight loss the scale showed may mean I need to drop another 2mg. Friday is when I normally do my main weigh-in, but I was curious to check something.
Click to expand...
It's been curious to me that your weight keeps falling in what looks like a straight line, even with lower doses... Mine followed a flattening curve toward goal weight, and at this point the loss has basically halted... while I never changed my doses at all... in fact, I added sema............it's a mystery™.... 😎 🍺
 
Flash-BCR said:

That matches what has been described in both anecdotal accounts and clinical trial reports regarding skin-related side effects from reta...I'm impressed you stuck with it for that long given everything you were dealing with... 😳

Over the couple of weeks since you stopped, have the skin problems shown any indication of easing up?

I'm a big tirz fan....best of luck with it, keep us posted on the follow-up and how things go....GL!....
Click to expand...
I feel a bit crazy for sticking with it for so long lol.

The itching has decreased significantly, and no new patches are appearing.

Sema and Cagri never gave me this issue, so I'm hoping Tirz will be the same. On top of that, I've shed a lot of hair on Reta (not on the others), and Minoxidil isn't helping at all, so I hope Tirz can address that as well! Most of my weight came off on Sema, but I stalled, which is why I made the switch to Reta originally. I was hoping a lower dose would improve things, but unfortunately it got worse, so I think Reta simply isn't the right drug for me!

I'll check back in once I'm settled on Tirz and the Reta has fully cleared my system. Thank you!
 
5byfive said:

To be honest, Tirz likely works better for maintenance regardless. Reta puts more strain on the body. A low-dose Tirz can keep food noise and appetite under control, and you avoid the added glucagon activation that makes your body work harder.
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My hope is that 2.5 will be enough to keep me maintaining.
 
5byfive said:

To be honest, Tirz likely works better for maintenance regardless. Reta puts more strain on the body. A low-dose Tirz can keep food noise and appetite under control, and you avoid the added glucagon activation that makes your body work harder.
Click to expand...

Tirz is what I lean on for maintenance as well; Reta only gets cycled in whenever the scale starts creeping up. It's a shame the rash made her stop — that sounds truly awful.
 
Flash-BCR said:

It's been curious to me that your weight keeps falling in what looks like a straight line, even with lower doses... Mine followed a flattening curve toward goal weight, and at this point the loss has basically halted... while I never changed my doses at all... in fact, I added sema............it's a mystery™.... 😎 🍺
Click to expand...
Goal #2 is still 13 pounds away. Nothing about my intake has changed. My workouts haven't changed either. All my peps remain the same. The scale has slowed, though. It hasn't stopped, but it has slowed as expected. There was a 6-day stretch where the scale didn't budge, and that hadn't happened to me before in my peptide research.

I'm not making any changes. I'll just adjust my expectations. When I reach goal, I'll keep my peptide levels steady until there's proof that an adjustment is needed.
 
Flash-BCR said:

It's been curious to me that your weight keeps falling in what looks like a straight line, even with lower doses... Mine followed a flattening curve toward goal weight, and at this point the loss has basically halted... while I never changed my doses at all... in fact, I added sema............it's a mystery™.... 😎 🍺
Click to expand...
I get it — the number on the scale can drop suddenly. Perhaps by Friday my weight will be back where it usually sits, unless what's really going away is the fat around my belly and love handles. The love handles along my sides are clearly getting smaller. I've taken over this thread more than enough.
 
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