The Side Effects of Steroids

We know that it is common to struggle with your mental health when you have cancer or care for someone with cancer. Avoid close contact with people who’ve recently had live vaccines taken by mouth (oral vaccines) such as oral polio or the typhoid vaccine. In the UK, live vaccines include rubella, mumps, measles, BCG, yellow fever and the shingles vaccine (Zostavax).

Effects on your mood can happen quite suddenly and improve once you stop taking steroids. Nonetheless, it can be unsettling to experience changes in mood. Let your medical team know how you are feeling so that they can help to manage these side effects of steroids. If your side effects are severe, they might lower your dose of steroids.

General advice on short-term steroid treatments

Open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (except English bank holidays). If you need specific medical advice about your condition, your GP or IBD team will be best placed to help. We know it can be difficult to live with, or support someone living with these conditions. Skin thinning is an uncommon, temporary side-effect of steroids, but when combined with weight gain, it can result in stretchmarks.

• Always tell your doctor, nurse or pharmacist about any side effects you have.
• A recent review compared the effectiveness and safety of oral and intravenous steroid treatments for people with MS. The review found that both treatments appeared to be equally effective and safe.
• You’ll need to keep taking the steroids while you’re waiting to be considered for biologics.
• If you have any questions or concerns about this, talk to the healthcare professional who prescribed your steroids.

You will be given the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time, to reduce the risk of side effects. Your dose will probably be reduced gradually as your symptoms improve, or your doctor might suggest a weaker medication. Do not eat liquorice while taking prednisolone, however, as this can increase the amount of the medicine in your body.

The new treatment

If you’re having an operation, you might need to stop your steroids. Don’t do this without speaking to your doctor or surgeon first though, as in some cases you might be able to carry on taking them, and you may need to have your dose changed before the operation. Sometimes steroids can cause another condition known as Cushing’s syndrome. This can cause thinning of the skin, stretch marks, and the face to become rounder, but it usually clears up once steroids are stopped.

They are often sculpted and appear very strong and confident. That aura will come with the way they look, and others will want that. For some people, their path to that type of body comes at a cost.

With non-Hodgkin lymphoma, you might have steroids for a few days or a week during each cycle of chemotherapy. Below, we answer some frequently asked questions about steroids in the treatment of lymphoma. Steroids can affect the speed at which your body breaks down food to get energy from it (your metabolism).

Anabolic steroids

They are used by bodybuilders and athletes to enhance performance and build up muscle. Steroids can make you feel hungrier than usual and you may gain weight. Your appetite should go back to normal when you stop taking steroids.

How steroids work

These are not the same as the steroids that some bodybuilders use, which are called anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are a prescription medication used to treat a variety of legitimate medical needs. Most often, people will be prescribed in the form of inhalers for asthma, or sometimes to help with muscle pain.

You might not be able to start steroids if you have an infection, or if you have any wounds on your body, as steroids might delay these getting better or cover up some of your symptoms. This page is about steroids that can be taken as tablets, liquids, pharmacycanadian creams and eye drops and ointments. Information about steroid injections is covered on a different page. Steroids won’t cure your condition, but they’re very good at reducing inflammation and will ease symptoms such as swelling, pain and stiffness.