You don't really suffer side effects from reducing pred - you may have steroid withdrawal symptoms if you try to reduce in too big steps but if you reduce in small steps, allowing yourself to stabilise between you will have fewer problems. And if you reduce to too low a dose then you are likely to suffer a return of the symptoms for which you are taking the pred.

Some people stop getting pred side effects as they lower the dose, or get fewer - and some can be managed quite well anyway when you know how.

And this is a link to a reduction plan many people have used and is being used in a clinical trial as a way of reducing the problems people meet when reducing:

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

People on my home forum have sometimes been on pred for 5 or 6 years and have got off altogether using this approach or something similar. I, on the other hand, have been on pred for over 9 years (I have had my illness for over 14 years) and really - I can't say I notice much in the way of pred side effects. Unfortunately my illness is very stubborn and keeps flaring even without lowering the dose.

No question; prednisone can be a challenge. As PMR Pro said, it's not side effects so much . I felt very well on higher doses for several months; weight gain is a problem; luckily I did not gain more than 5 pounds. Fatigue and pain comes back if I go below 4 mg; have gone from 16mg to 4mg; have decided to stay on 4mg as a maintenance dose. It's hard to believe that just a 2mg difference makes a big difference in how I feel; everyone is different however.

Hi,

I managed to get off preds 10 months ago. I have GPA and started on 60mg. It took more than 3 years to get off them.

I reduced very slowly especially below 10mg. Only once I had to go up a few mg and start again after a few weeks.

I didn't have a flare, but I had withdrawal symptoms : joint pain and fatigue. The symptoms came a few days after the reduction and continued for a week or so.

Hope that helps