Cortisol blood test

[maxxgarry]

Hello again. I am even more bewildered now and am always grateful for comments and advice given on this forum. I am currently taking 20mg Prednisolone and have been asked several times by my GP to have a Cortisol blood test. I finally had this done at 8.50am on Monday. I didn't take my dose until after the test.

At 1pm I received a call from a GP telling me that my results showed a very low reading and that they would check further.

Today my GP asked to see me and repeated this information. He telephoned the endocrinologist who said I needed to ensure that, I should not drop below 7.5mg, if I felt light headed I must double up on my steroids and contact the GP, and if I had sickness or diarrhoea I must go to A & E and be given steroids intravenously. It could be life threatening!

I am totally confused as I am lead to believe that my reading shouldn't be low as I am taking 20mg per day.

Could anyone offer any explanations as to why there seems to be a contradiction in the advice.

Thanks in advance.

[SnazzyD]

I guess it was low because you had to withhold your dose so that there was no cortisone in your system. Because your body is ordinarily pickled with it, your adrenal glands and the feedback system did not wake up in time for the test so no Cortisol as would be expected. why on Earth is your doctor worrying about adrenal function now? Or am I missing something?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Well of COURSE it was low - at 20mg pred it will suppress any production of cortisol. Where did they learn their medicine - can't have been a lot of physiology included!

At a guess, the GP is panicking but the endocrinologst either didn't have the full information or didn't read it ...

[Longtimer in reply to PMRpro]

Or read it and didn't understand it!!......

[Viv54]

I just dont understand this as im waiting to see an Endo and can not be seen until im on a much lower dose , as i am told its pointless . You need to get more answers from all parties !

[VicSat]

I am on 4mg Prednisolone and was told by an Endocrinologist to stop taking it 48 hrs before the test. Prednisolone stays longer in the blood stream than Hydrocortisone.