Hello all. I have had 3 blood tests recently, with a few problems. The latest test shows my cortisol level at 62. GP has marked this as OK.

[Hirondelle]

Low serum cortisol level

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It all depends on what your current dose of pred is. Above about 7mg there will be little need for the body to produce cortisol - so it will be low. Also if you had taken pred in the 24 hours prior to the blood sample being taken the cortisol level will have been suppressed even further, Without knowing those facts it is impossible to make any relevant comments.

[Hirondelle in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you; I couldn’t give more info to you as I was limited to 90 characters. Weird. Probably because I was on my iPhone. I am on 5 mg of Pred, after having got down to 4 but gone up again when the pains came back. I took Pred at 0800 before bloods taken at 11.45.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hirondelle]

You are only restricted in number of characters for the TITLE of your post. There are two boxes: the upper one is for the title, the lower is for the post itself and there is no restriction there. I don't imagine that is any different on a phone than using any other device. Unless maybe you are trying to use the app - which is never a good idea. I'm sure MrsNails could elucidate!

[SnazzyD in reply to Hirondelle]

Ah you may have been typing your post in the box meant for the title. Your Pred may well have affected your result. Normally it is done around 9am before Pred is taken. For me 5mg was still at a level that suppressed my adrenal function, judging by my symptoms. I wasn’t allowed get any sort of function testing until I was at 4mg for that reason.

[Hirondelle in reply to SnazzyD]

Thank you Snazzy D. I will wait until I can get down to 4 again.

[Rugger]

A more reliable check of your cortisol level is a 9am sample taken after being without prednisolone for 24 hours. I imagine your dose taken within 4 hours of the test has affected the result.

I had mine checked a week ago and because I take gastro-resistant pred tablets, I took my dose 36 hours before the test, just to be sure.

[Hirondelle in reply to Rugger]

Thank you Rugger. I will try and talk to the GP about the next blood test but she is very unhelpful. I have to take 11 medications over the day, which I would love to reduce, as I am sure they muck up my body.