Balloon Face

[Joyce1952]

I have noticed I now have the swollen pred Face, will this go away and, if so, when?

[SheffieldJane]

Yes, isn’t it upsetting ? It does go away at the lower doses. You just have to be careful not to give in to the voracious appetite for naughty foods, that the steroids bring and add a plumper face to the issue. We comfort ourselves with the fact that our wrinkles smooth out - who needs fillers?

The “when” question is individual. I would guess, under 10 mgs, unless there is recent weight to lose, ( me).

[Hidden]

Hi Joyce

I had a ‘Moon Face’ & found it very upsetting but as Janes says super smooth skin! I always used to say I used a lot more foundation then too!

When l got down to 10mg it kind of just ‘melted’ away! You hardly notice at first but suddenly one day, almost back to normal, l felt my jaw line returning as my face kinda blended with my neck when l was on high doses.

How many mg of Pred are you on now?

Wishing you all the best

Mrs Nails 💅🏼

[SnazzyD]

Hello, there’s a reason why I have virtually no photos of me over the last year and the ones that do exist are me running away 😉.

It is individual but my face started to reduce around 10mg but oddly it has gone up again a little around 6mg but it might be that I’ve put on a lb or two in weight, having been low for a year. So if Pred makes one redistribute fat to the tummy and face, it figures. The other thing that makes my face puff up is salt, so I keep that as low as possible. That means being very restrictive.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It does depend on the person - sometimes it doesn't go at 10mg (just saying in case it doesn't for you) or even until you get off pred altogether.

However, mine started to fade away when I was still on 15mg BUT I had started on a low carb diet - as a result of which I lost 35lbs altogether over about 18 months. My face is still plump - but I am still several kilos over the weight I'd like to be. Low carb diets make your body use the fat stores in your body to produce energy - and the round face is due to fat deposits whose position is influenced by the pred. When I started to lose weight, the first place it went from was around my middle - trousers fell down all of a sudden! Then my face and then the back of my neck.

[Telian in reply to PMRpro]

What dose are you on now?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Telian]

8 or 9mg.

[Telian in reply to PMRpro]

Was interested as something that BD said on Friday, he was asked how long would it take for the Cushionoid to go - he said as you reduce it will go down and the fat will then drop down to the front and back of neck and shoulders - IF you get to zero it will take about a year to lose it all. We shall see or not!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Telian]

I don't agree with him there - everyone is different and one lady who put on a few stone didn't lose a scrap until she was off pred altogether, nothing went on the way down. Then it melted away without her noticing until a skirt descended while out shopping!

[Telian in reply to PMRpro]

Everyone is different and he did say that - I have lost the chubby cheeks nearly but have the jowls I never had before, I never thought it was the steroids causing jowels as I haven't put a great deal of weight on - thought I needed a facelift though - but I'm not off them so only time will tell.

[Ta1ch1 in reply to PMRpro]

Weight gain is becoming a problem for me also and as I have difficulty exercising, ( double laminectomy ) as being in any spine bending position for more than a minute brings its own related problems. I have decided to go low-carb ( as much as possible ) and wondered if anyone could suggest a reasonable daily carb intake that would help with the relationship between PRED and carb related weight gain.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Ta1ch1]

I only lost weight by being REALLY low, probably under 30g of utlisable carb per day and the weight loss was very slow, maybe 1/2lb a week. But I too was unable to exercise at first - I was on crutches for several months with a dodgy achilles tendon. I didn't have too much trouble maintaining my weight although it has crept up in the last year or so for various reasons - winter doesn't help!

But OH is in hospital this week and I can choose what I eat more easily and I have lost a kilo in the last few weeks, mostly this week I think. It's difficult to tell as I get into a funny fluid balance and then suddenly lose and then level out, rinse and repeat.

The only real way to find out is to choose a level and try it, if it doesn't work, cut a bit further. But I think that most people really need to get down to 50-75g to see an obvious effect. The websites tend to start with very low levels, none or under 20g, and then build up - but I'm not sure how easy that is to stick to at first. Once you cut the carbs you usually miss them less and less as time goes on but it can feel very strange diving straight into very low carb.

[Rugger]

Search for Kate Gilbert's post 'Moon Face' and you'll see photos of her before, during and after pred - that should reassure you!