low cortisol

[RoseStar]

hello,

I’ve repeatedly had lowish 9am cortisol (around 250ish mark) but passed SST. However, private endo has said he wants to trial a low dose of hydrocortisone to see if it helps my symptoms of chronic fatigue, headaches, muscle aches etc. etc. I’m nervous to trial a steroid when I don’t have Addison’s tbh - has anyone had any experience of this?

[greygoose]

Yes, I have. But my morning cortisol was a lot lower than that. Can't remember the exact numbers, it was a long time ago, but one hundred and something. I was told I had adrenal fatigue and that taking HC for a while would give them the helping hand they needed until they were capable of working on their own again.

But, it was stressed to me that if I ever hoped to come off HC I should never take it after 1pm. First dose when I got up in the morning, second dose before lunch, then leave the adrenals to work for themselves the rest of the day.

I took it for a couple of years and was then able to wean myself off it. I can't remember any specific symptoms it helped with, but I remember I had so much more energy! And I felt really good.

[TiggerMe]

Yes, my 9am cortisol levels 224 and I passed the SST... 'no further action' so last year I initially added adrenal cortex and some improvement so I swapped to 5mg HC and thing continued to improve, took it for around 8 months and then swapped back to adrenal cortex... all good

[RoseStar]

thank you both. He wants me on 10mg first thing in the morning

[TiggerMe in reply to RoseStar]

I forgot to say I first tried a 1cm blob of HC 1% cream and that gave a surprising lift for an hour, you could give that a go to see how you feel

[RoseStar in reply to TiggerMe]

Where did you apply it?

[TiggerMe in reply to RoseStar]

Torso alternating between either side of stomach and either side of back as you shouldn't apply in the same place as it will thin the skin, I used it for a few weeks just to prove to myself it was doing the trick

[J972]

Lucy___