October 13, 2026 | Male Procedures, Patient Safety, Recovery
Unfortunately, I am seeing a lot of these come from unlicensed sources. A lot of people are buying these from their trainers, or at the gym. But I think the greatest amount of people are buying them from the internet, from unknown sources. And that is where the real danger lies.
MDLinx asked me about that for a piece on DIY peptide injections. Before I operate on anyone, I ask what they inject, and I ask to see the vial and the syringe.
What I Am Seeing
Which peptides are patients self-injecting?
Dr. Agullo: “The most common peptides I’m seeing patients self-inject are the stacks. The Wolverine stack, the Glow stack, and the KLOW stack.”
Wolverine is BPC-157 and TB-500. Glow adds GHK-Cu. KLOW is Glow plus KPV. NAD+ shows up too, and it is not a peptide. Many of these patients are men, which is why this post also lives in the men’s hub.
The Case
Have you treated a real complication?
Dr. Agullo: “Yes, I’ve had a patient, a male in his 30s, who was self-administering the Wolverine stack, which he purchased on the internet. He came in with a red area in the buttock, with fevers and night sweats. When we examined him, he had an area that was boggy. We went ahead and lanced it and removed purulent discharge, and we started packing it for about a week, with antibiotics. The cultures came back as Staph aureus. Luckily, it was not methicillin resistant, which would be MRSA. And the patient recovered and healed well.”
“We did note on that examination that he also had some nodules throughout previous injection sites. This could have been due to the substance not being pure or completely aseptic. The nodules could also be from the injection technique itself, the aseptic technique, or the body’s own response creating fibrosis.”
Why This Matters to a Surgeon
Peptides are on the stop list I covered in the peptides before surgery post.
The Label: Licensed Pharmacy Versus “Research Use Only”
I prescribe compounded medications.
What is the difference?
Dr. Agullo: “A compounded product from a 503A or 503B pharmacy is made under FDA-regulated conditions, sterility-tested, and labeled with a verified dose and purity. By contrast, any vendor, on the internet or anywhere else, can simply stamp ‘for research purposes only’ on a vial.”
The Rule I Give Every Patient
“I also tell them what a normal injection site looks like at 24 hours versus what should send them to a physician the same day: expanding redness, warmth, fever, or a nodule that is still growing at day five.”
I have seen many cases like this, so this is not an isolated case. And the common denominator in all these cases has been that the substances or the peptides have been acquired through unlicensed sources. To avoid this, I recommend obtaining all peptides from a certified pharmacy through your physician.
The full patient version of this post is on swplasticsurgery.com, and the peptide therapy monitoring post covers how I run it with a prescription.
Why Choose Dr. Agullo
Dr. Agullo is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, completed his plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, and serves as Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He has been a Castle Connolly Top Doctor every year from 2014 through 2026.
Ready to Talk?
If you are injecting something you bought online, bring the vial to your consultation.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful
Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
