Do you have severe hayfever?

If you suffer from hayfever and are getting limited relief from tablets, eye drops and nose sprays then you could be classed as having severe hayfever. We do advise most of our patients to try and take a few forms of anti-histamine medications, but if these are not working then the injection may be a solution.

It is a common phenomenon. Every year, somewhere between 10-20 per cent of us will be afflicted by symptoms of pollen allergy.  Whether you’re sneezing, suffering from a simple runny nose or experiencing more severe symptoms like exhaustion and sickness, you’re not the only one experiencing this.

Hay fever works just the same as other allergic responses  – the immune system responds to a foreign substance entering the body and attempts to remove it.  In the case of hay fever, this foreign body is pollen particles, which are harmless to your health.  Hay fever is your immune system over-reacting to a harmless allergen.

How does the injection work?

The injection’s active ingredient is triamcinolone which is a steroid. When injected into a muscle, usually the buttocks, this causes the body to reduce it’s production of histamine in response to allergens such as tree and grass pollen. Whilst this injection reduces the response to common allergens, it can also theoretically reduce the bodies response to fight normal bacterial and viral infections too.  

The injection works usually within 24 hours and gives symptomatic relief within 72 hours. 

Is the injection safe?

The injection comes with risk factors associated with having oral tablets, and the effect of the steroid injection usually lasts the whole of the hayfever season. In the vast majority of our patients, one injection a year poses little risk to the body. As with any prescribed medication a detailed medical history and consultation will need to be undertaken with one of our doctors prior to the injection where all the risks and benefits will be discussed with you in detail.  The injection works like taking the equivalent of 5mg of prednisolone for around three weeks.

• When the steroids are injected instead of ingested they are deposited directly into the muscle. There, they leak into the bloodstream in a low dose over the course of around three weeks.
• Hay fever sufferers generally only require one injection to reduce symptoms for the entire hay fever season.  Compared to taking tablets every day, that’s very convenient.
• The injection contains 40mg of the steroid triamcinolone. Each injection is roughly equal to the steroid dose from taking a 5mg tablet of prednisolone every day for around three weeks.
• One of the benefits of the injection is that it does not have to go through the liver or the digestive system, so you can administer a slightly lower dose than the tablet form.
• The injections have helped many people to control hay fever symptoms. For severe sufferers, life can be seriously disrupted by hay fever.
• Untreated, hay fever has been shown to reduce exam results by between 5-10 per cent. Patients report feeling unwell or exhausted for several months at a time.
• The general public have been given a lot of information about steroids in recent years, not all of it positive. To be clear, many of the more severe side effects of steroids come from the use of very high doses over a long period of time. The hay fever injection contains a relatively low dose and carries a much lower risk of adverse side effects.

How quickly does it work?

Most patients get relief within 24 hours, with all patients finding they get symptomatic relief within 72 hours. Get in touch if you would like more information regarding this treatment, or if you would like to book in. Don’t let the high pollen count ruin your summer.