Hot flashes, prednisone or PMR

[Rose8950]

My PMR is under control on 20 mg even though I have made 3 attempts at tapering down at 15 mg on my rheumatologist suggestion. I get these hot flashes all the time, I didn’t even get any during menopause. Is that normal, is it due to PMR or to my attempts at tapering down. I have read the five week plan at tapering down and I think I’ll give it a try. Surely but slowly….

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Now you have asked you will plenty of replies but for completeness will copy my response from other thread -

Hot flashes are very common, can be the meds or the illness.. especially if it’s not fully under control. Seems to part and parcel of many autoimmune disorder.

I did respond on tapering in other thread.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It may be the illness or it may be the pred - or, both.

I would hope your PMR is under control at 20mg but extreme difficulty at tapering would normally raise alarm bells for me. However - were you told to reduce the dose in one step to 15mg? That would be VERY likely to cause problems. The jump from 20 to 15 is going to cause the withdrawal discomfort - usually it will ease over a period of up to a couple of weeks but a smaller step would be far better

Five mgs, even with the 5 week plan, it too much at one time. It is best to aim for 10% of the current dose - 2mg when you are at 20 but 2.5mg for ease cutting the tablets is usually manageable. So go via 17.5 for a few weeks at least.

[jinoadby in reply to PMRpro]

I have had PMR for over 3 years now and started getting hot flashes almost from the start. However earlier this year after I dropped to 2.5mg they stopped dead immediately. For various reasons I had to go back up to 3mg for a while (a house move + packing and unpacking) and the flashes started up again. A month ago I went back down to 2.5mg and they've gone again. So I reckon it must be the pred.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to jinoadby]

It is difficult to tell at the start - but I had PMR for a long time without pred, and I had hot flashes. I still get them with pred plus PMR. Others only got them after starting pred for their PMR. So it may be one, the other, or both ...

[piglette]

Exactly the same with me. I sailed through menopause without a hot flush in sight and then I take 20mg of pred and WHAM! I used to tell people I had been swimming. However the good news is they went away as I reduced. Going from 20mg to 15mg seems a bit drastic, I had trouble reducing more than 1mg at a time. On the other hand we are all different.

[Pinkcrocs]

Happy New Year Rose8950!I wouldn't reduce to 15mg. The step is quite a drop. 1mg would still be a reduction and you probably won't need to yo-yo.

x🤗