5mg of prednisone longterm experiences?

@seniormed Amazing! I did not know this. This is really helpful information. Thank you.

@swalex Glad to hear that your skin normalised even if it took some time. Thanks so much for sharing your photo.

@krg351 Good to hear that you are seeing improvements in your symptoms after stopping prednisone. This is exactly what I was curious about.

@renm Good to know! Amazing how prednisone affects everyone in such different ways, even on a 5 mg dose.

@humbug yes I absolutely agree. I’m still dealing with some GI problems but nowhere like they was. Unfortunately the medicine does work but if you can avoid taking it long term and just do short term doses that would be my recommendation.

my dog is on it and has such side effects! SAD

I am a disabled healthcare professional. It is generally said that 5 mg of prednisone is equivalent to what the body produces naturally. But what is true for a population is not necessarily true for an individual. In my experience, weight matters, ie, low weight individuals respond differently than the average 70 kg man. Also most studies were done on men, so less information available about women. And in my experience, in periods of high stress (illness, car accidents, etc), a small but significant portion of patients will require “stress dose steroids “ . This makes sense as taking prednisone, even 5 mg, gives your adrenals a holiday, causing some shrinkage (or atrophy).

Of note, I haven’t seen this phenomenon with 2,5 mg of prednisone.

@laura1970 This is all very interesting! Great to hear from someone in the healthcare field. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I have AIH, so an overactive immune system, so hope adrenal atrophy may be less likely.
Really good to hear about your experiences with 2.5 mg of prednisone. I'm currently being tapered and am on 5mg so will be requesting 2.5 going ahead if all is stable with my blood work next month.

The only side effects I have had is thin skin under my eyes and I do bruise easily, and the bruises take a long time to go away. I have CVID, Primary Immunodeficiency, so I get lots of sinus, ear and upper respiratory infections. In the past 20 years of being put a variety of medicines, including Prednisone, my main side effect with Prednisone is my eyes. My eye Dr. is "watching" me, not diagnosed, it is the beginning stages of possibly Glaucoma. My Dr. asked if I had a family history of Glaucoma and I said No. One of the side effects of long-term use with Prednisone is Glaucoma. I have "cupping" when my Dr. examines me with my eyes each year I go in and he checks the pressure as well for it. I don't usually get "moon face", it doesn't affect me that way. However, everyone is different in how medications affect them, everyone can react differently to the same dosage of medication.

I've been on Medrol (a slightly stronger version of Prednisone) since 2019) for a variety of autoimmune diseases that we hadn't been able to find the right biologic for. This year we finally figured out that lurking in the background the reason I probably needed the Medrol was because although I didn't have enough antibodies yet, I just tested positive for Dermatomyositis. I've had as high as 150mg of Prednisone via IV, 40mg of Medrol during flares, and my daily dose of Medrol is 8mg. I did gain weight over the years (probably about 80 lbs) but much of that in hindsight was due to the fact that I could hardly move and love to eat, lol. I am not a candidate for any of the GLP1's since my mother had thyroid cancer and I've had a couple of unexplained bouts of pancreatitis, so I went vegan. I lost 40 lbs. I've since added back cottage cheese and eggs and a little chicken here and there, but I've maintained the weight loss despite still not being able to move. I bruise easily, and I have the crepey skin of a 107 year old despite being in my 50's. Losing weight definitely helped with the moon-face, but I think it's still there. My biggest annoyance is the facial hair - I developed this dark, peach fuzz around the jawline which looks TERRIBLE if you wear foundation! But I couldn't wax as I'm on blood thinners which when added to the steroid left me bruised for weeks. Threading was agonizing and left tiny little bruises. I wound up ordering this little gadget that my hairdresser told me about from Amazon that is painless and takes two seconds to remove the peach fuzz. The steroid has raised my blood pressure, and my blood sugar pushing me into the pre-diabetic stage. To avoid an ulcer, I have to take a PPI every day and to avoid osteoporosis, I'm on a monthly osteoporosis drug. But I did taper back in March specifically to see if the steroid had suppressed my adrenal glands completely and to everyone's delight they still work, which made my case all the more puzzling (although now that I've tested positive for the DM it all makes sense). My eye doctor sees me quarterly for a pressure check just to keep an eye on things (no pun intended, ha) because steroids can change eye pressure. I've just started IVIG for the Dermatomyositis and if it works, it would be a dream come true to get off Medrol. I'd also be able to get off the blood pressure meds, the PPI, the osteoporosis drug and hopefully my blood sugar would return to normal as despite my love of food, I'm generally a healthy eater. A girl can only hope. That said, the Medrol has given me some semblance of life as without it I don't know that I could made it this far 🙂