Medical terms can feel confusing, so let's break it down.
Compounded prescriptions sometimes include extra ingredients called additives. These are safe, supportive components that help in several ways:
They keep the medication effective during storage.
Some additives reduce irritation, making injections easier on your body.
Certain pharmacies may add supplements like Vitamin B12 (which can give the liquid a reddish color).
Important Note: Additives do not interfere with how well your GLP-1 medication supports weight management.
A cc is simply another way of saying mL.
They are interchangeable: 1 cc = 1 mL.
Some syringes or instructions may use “cc,” but it means the exact same thing.
A milliliter (mL) is a metric measurement of liquid volume.
It shows how much liquid is actually in the syringe.
Example: 1 mL is one-thousandth of a liter—roughly equal to 1/5 of a teaspoon.
Think of concentration as the “strength” of your medication. It describes how much active ingredient is mixed into each milliliter (mL) of liquid inside the vial. Because different pharmacies may prepare medications with slightly different concentrations, the same prescribed dose might fill your syringe with more or less liquid depending on how it was made.
You don’t have to do the math yourself—just follow the units shown on your prescription label and in your patient portal. That’s the number that matters.
Units measure the potency (strength) of a medication, not how much liquid is in the syringe.
For GLP-1 prescriptions, doses are written in units because that’s the most precise way to track how much active drug you’re taking.
Conversion: 100 units = 1 milliliter (mL).
Example: If you’re prescribed 20 units, that number tells you the exact dose of medication—not just the liquid amount.