Short-term steroid treatment Great Ormond Street Hospital

Please ask your doctor for more information about immunisations. Call or WhatsApp our Helpline for support with your condition. Get advice on your medicines, symptoms or travelling with a lung condition, or just call us to say hello.

• If you have any of these conditions, the person treating you will need to make sure the steroids aren’t making the condition worse.
• You may get some of the side effects we mention, but you are unlikely to get all of them.
• If you take your preventer inhaler every day, as prescribed, you should notice fewer symptoms.
• This is most likely to be a steroid medicine called prednisolone.
• Assessment of the disease may be needed during withdrawal to ensure that relapse does not occur.

It is important to take steroids exactly as prescribed by your doctor. If you do need a steroid card, make sure you always carry it with you. If you lose it, you can get a replacement from your pharmacy or GP. Steroids that are injected into a blood vessel (intravenous steroids) may cause more widespread side effects.

Are there any reasons why I won’t be prescribed steroids?

Steroid injections, inhalers and sprays aren’t thought to pose a risk to babies being breastfed. However, they should be avoided or used with caution if you have an ongoing infection or a blood clotting disorder (like haemophilia). Corticosteroids, often known as steroids, are an anti-inflammatory medicine. Your doctor, rheumatology nurse or pharmacist should give you a steroid card if you need one.

Your child needs to be closely monitored while on steroid treatment, which may include checking their weight, blood pressure and urine. Your GP surgery, local hospital or local community nurses will usually run these check ups. The vaccine against the most common cause of pneumonia and yearly flu vaccines don’t interact with steroid tablets, as they’re not live vaccines. It’s important that you have these vaccinations to reduce your chances of getting these infections.

Prednisolone – the fertility wonder drug?

If you’ve taken steroid tablets for more than a few days, they can cause side effects known as withdrawal symptoms if you stop suddenly. You might be given a small dose, known as a maintenance dose, for a long time to make sure your symptoms don’t return. Don’t have immunisations with live vaccines while you’re having treatment and for up to 12 months afterwards.

You could also contact our specialist Helpline nurses for more information and support. Steroid tabletsSteroid tablets, such as prednisolone, are more likely to cause bone loss if you take them for more than three months, or if you often take a short course of them. The higher the dose, the sooner your bones might be affected. Overall, steroid medications can cause bone to break down faster than it is made.

Prednisolone / Prednisolone Absorption / Metabolism Test

This means your body has problems making enough of a hormone called cortisol. Having this problem can affect your body’s ability to cope with stress. This might be from an infection, surgery or injury for example. Knowing this allows the healthcare team to give you prompt medical treatment.

Tell your doctor straightaway if you think you could have chicken pox or shingles. There are some simple steps you can take to help lower the risk of developing problems while you are on steroid medication. If you take steroids for a long time, you might be at risk of osteoporosis, where your bones become thin and weak. This can make them more fragile and likely to fracture or break.

Steroids also reduce the activity of the immune system, the body’s natural defence against illness and infection. Steroid tablets may not be suitable in these cases, although your doctor may recommend usaprosportsnews them if they think the benefits outweigh any risks. Your doctor may reduce your dose or suggest taking your tablets less often (for example, every other day) if you’re having side effects.

If you do not have a copy of the manufacturer’s patient information leaflet please talk to your pharmacist. A few products do not have a marketing authorisation (licence) as a medicine and therefore there is no PIL. Although children are usually given the chicken pox vaccine, if your child is receiving high-dose steroids we recommend siblings or other close family members have it.