Slow taper no pain but sweats and some palpitations.

Posted , 11 users are following.

I am on 8.5 tapering to 8.25. I’ll get hot sweats (too old for hot flashes) and occasional palpitations. Over my lifetime I’ve had palpitations which were evaluated and have no other symptoms like dizziness or weakness. BP is good.,

Is this common with pred tapering- I’ve read some people have this with tapering elsewhere. Interestingly my breathing is much better on lower pred and steroid inhalers are the lowest dose in years.

1 like, 10 replies

10 Replies

  • Posted

    karenjaninaz, I am an 80 year young male with night sweats since I have been on Phednisone, just another one of the lovely side effects. But no PMR pain, so I am smiling and thinking positive. 🙂

  • Posted

    Hi karenjaninaz

    I had hot flashes and rapid heart beat and breathlessness when i was tapering from 10mg through to 5mg tapering 1mg a month. When i got to 5mg those side effects calmed down a little..but continued to get them occassionally until i came off preds completely..I have been off preds for approx 11 months now and feel ok..no more breathlessness and palpitations..i wish you every success with your tapering...my very best wishes to you karenjaninaz....

  • Posted

    I find the sweats return if I am at the borderline dose of OK/not OK. Sounds as if you are at a "good" dose for you for everything. Except the palpitations! And if they have been checked out that's not really a problem either. My palpitations were due to the autoimmune part of PMR having damaged the electrical cells in the heart - had them with PMR but no pred so that was fairly conclusively not pred!

    • Posted

      wow

      Have had periodic spells that can go for days of sinus tachycardi 

      Comes and goes like a switch  for years.

      Testes done. , Docs thought of ablation but then it resolves, so just live with it.

      Have been telling people havent had a single episode since on pred, Very interesting

      Always somethong tpo learn!

      Thanks Eileen

    • Posted

      Mine continued on pred and I am now on medication for atrial fibrillation, they don't like using ablation here because it rarely works long term. It is well controlled perhaps 98% of the time, maybe more. But my feeling is it is better controlled at 7mg pred than at 5mg pred.

  • Posted

    Because I was hyper when on Pred. and also had palpitations my GP put me on a 24 hour monitor and told me that it showed all was normal while I was asleep. He asked me to try taking the Pred. at night and that solved the problem but raised a few eyebrows at the time. That is seven or eight years ago and I think opinions have  changed a bit since then.
  • Posted

    (too old for hot flashes), I smiled...................when I was youngish a neighbour was was 70 told me that she still had hot flushes/flashes and that she had never got rid of them and now did not to expect that to happen.  I was interested but forgot all about it.

    Now I am nearing 80 and still have hot flushes and night sweats, still on Premarin, which helps and now realise that some of us...........will never get rid...............grr.

    You could try extract of sage, I found that it helps sometimes and also evening primrose oil.  But before you decide to try either  of them  please remember to check them both out with the Pharmacist in case they are not compatible with whatever medications you are currently taking.

    • Posted

      I had a hysterectomy at the age of 35 so that's when my hot flashes started. Being on an estrogen patch kept those hot flashes at bay as long as I remembered to change it when I should. Unfortunately, for years I had little sexual interest and just did not have the greatest of feelings. I didn't know that I could feel any different than that until I saw a OB/GYN that was up-to-date on the most current trends happening in that field. He introduced me to bioidentical hormones. I was in my mid-forties by then and when I started using it it truly made me feel like I was in my twenties again. And it wasn't just a sexual thing it was an all over good feeling. And of course I did not have the hot flashes either. The reason it works so well is that Premarin like you take and all the estrogen medicines and patches only give you estrogen. But when you go through menopause or have a hysterectomy you also lose progesterone and testosterone. And when they custom make your bioidentical hormone it will come with a combination of all three hormones. I didn't realize how important progesterone is to the body. And there are other organs that do help produce it after menopause or hysterectomy but the amount is miniscule. I strongly recommend you look into this. Unfortunately for me I had to stop it when I had a blood clot in my leg. And that meant no more hormones at all so I've had to go without anything to help hot flashes for about the last 7 years.

  • Posted

    I get hot flashes all the time and they're worse than the hot flashes I had from menopause. But it's not from the tapering it's from the prednisone itself. It is a typical side effect of prednisone.

  • Posted

    I too have had drenching sweats during tapers... and mild ones on lower doses!

    What a journey...

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