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Symptoms after you stop prednisone
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Dec 7 7:54pm | Replies (87)Comment receiving replies
@dadcue
Thank you for your response. You answered some questions I have had about why doctors talk about hormone levels but don't check them. I have only one adrenal gland and it has a cyst on it that is not growing. I did see an endocrinologist about that to get an baseline on the size of the cyst. Some hormone levels were checked at that time but that was years before PMR and prednisone. I still have hair but mine used to be quite thick. I hope I go off of prednisone and my hair returns. Is it a good idea to have hormones checked after one goes off of prednisone?
Replies to "@dadcue Thank you for your response. You answered some questions I have had about why doctors..."
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@csimmonds
"You answered some questions I have had about why doctors talk about hormone levels but don't check them."
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The real reason hormone levels aren't checked very often is because they fluctuate so much that it becomes somewhat meaningless to check them. A single lab test is only a snapshot on one day in time. For a cortisol level, it is especially difficult to interpret without knowing various factors like stress, time of day, and existing medications. My 8 a.m. cortisol level was only checked a couple of times. The endocrinologist said my symptoms were consistent with adrenal insufficiency. She wasn't surprised since I was on Prednisone for so long.
She offered to help me decide if I needed more Prednisone for adrenal insufficiency or not but she couldn't increase my cortisol level for me. She only said that I should not taper off Prednisone until my cortisol level improved. The only way for my cortisol level to improve was to stay on as low of a dose of Prednisone as possible and wait for my cortisol level to improve. If my cortisol level didn't improve on its own I would need to continue taking Prednisone.
She emphasized that I should not increase my Prednisone dose simply because a wannabe doctor on the internet told me to. I was reasonably sure I didn't need Prednisone for PMR because Actemra had PMR covered. Even so, my endocrinologist double-checked with my rheumatologist to make sure I didn't need Prednisone for PMR any longer.