cortisone injections

i usually have very regular periods that come every 28 days. i had to have a cortisone shot because i had a severe case of poison ivy. i started spotting the next day. it was about ten days before my period was supposed to be here. it wasn't implantation bleeding because i took pregnancy tests and they were negative. my light spotting after the cortisone shot lasted six days.

Wow. What a relief to read all of your posts. Though I cannot imagine bleeding for a month or more. I have been without a period for 12 months (perimenopausal by recent bloodwork). I had 5 trigger point injects in my left shoulder (cortisone) about 10 days ago. I started spotting yesterday and today I am having the period of a 16 year old...cramps and all. I was scared until I read your emails, though I will call the pain center and my ob-gyn tomorrow. This is crazy if doctors don't realize that this is a real side-effect of cortisone injections. I'm going to tell my doctors!!

After reading all of these posts, I am EXTREMELY confused. I had a cortisone shot in my shoulder 2 weeks ago. I was due to have my period (currently on birth control) exactly one week after my shot. I completely missed my period, and no...I am not pregnant. Why is my reaction different from everyone elses?

I know that things affect your body in different ways, so I can tell you this: I think that if you're having issues like that, it's not something to worry about. I know that it's pretty common to skip a period after something traumatic for your body like a cortisone shot. How are you doing now?

I too have the extended periods from a cortisone injection in June. I thought it was odd as I had finished my period completely for 4 days and then received the shot and that afternoon I started again. I have been normal my entire life so I thought it had to be related to the injection. Of course the doctors did not think it had anything to do with the shot. I have basically had a non stop period with severe PMS symptoms and horrible cramps like I was 16 again. I have been nervous to go to my OBGYN because I was afraid of all the testing I would need to go through. I recently saw an MD who tends to be more "natural" and he started me on an over the counter progesterone cream as well as did a ton of blood work to determine my hormone levels (I will get these results next week). I will say that since starting the cream the bleeding has reduced significantly. I still had 2 periods this month (which sucks) but it was nothing compared to what it was before. I am so sorry that we are all going through this but I will admit I have found some comfort knowing that this is a common side effect of the drug and it is not just me as I thought I was nuts. While I feel lucky that the relentless pain has reduced in my hip, I am not sure I will be getting another shot if it returns as having constant PMS is driving me and everyone around me CRAZY.

loosee I'm so sorry you're going through that and it sounds like you're really frustrated. I hope that things get better for you soon. Can you keep us updated on your situation? I want to hear if you're doin gbetter. Thanks!

My husband and i have been trying for babies for 4 years. a year ago about i was in a bad car accident which resulted in my bad whiplash and that was also the same time we started on fertility drugs (clomide citrate). My neck pain continued through the whole year and is still as bad so i had to go see my doctor and he right away scheduled a time for me to have a cortisone shot in my upper neck/head. o.O Had that shot about done this last month, about two weeks into my cycle, and then my period never came. i was about a week and a half late, which NEVER happens. Blood tests at the hospital said i wasnt pregnant, which is what we obviously were hoping for. But didnt look like my period was going to come on its own so i had to have estrogen shots in my back side. I have never not gotten my period and the only thing that was different was the shot. It has to be related. i am scheduled for another shot on the 9th, same day as when we are supposed to do another IUI. I am going to cancel the shot for now. Hope this helps someone!

Hi there, I did not know about the shot impacting your ability to get pregnant but I guess that makes sense. Thanks for posting your insight on the situation! Hopefully that helps someone :)

Ahhh, Thank goodness I am not insane. I was in a MVA in 2001. I received 6 steroidal(3 in my back and remaining in SI joint over the course of a year) injections and my periods were so bad, I was on 4 birth control pills a day to help stop the bleeding. (DNC and blood transfusion was suggested several times, just due to the fact of all the bleeding). My ladies man (as my bf and I call him) OB/GYN back then said no, could not be. I received another steroidal injection for my hip while I was pregnant in 06. They said the only thing it could do was help my daughters lungs in developing. I have been "normal" on Aunt Flo's visits since my daughter was born. I just received a steroidal shot at the end of Sept and since then I have had a "normal" period the second week of Oct, stopped for about a week, had a massive period with clots and a super plus every hour for about 3 days and then a super for the rest of the 2 weeks I was bleeding. I stopped for about 3 days and I am back on my period again. I am grateful for the pain the injections relieve and sometimes it is worth the bleeding for a min of pain relief. I see this as a way for the extra lining to be rid of. I know that eventually the steroids will wear off and the bleeding will stop. Sometimes when you are trying to get pregnant, this is a good way to rid your body of the excess lining to help with getting pregnant. I know that the steroidal shots reduce estrogen levels in females and it is hard to stop a period with low estrogen levels. Try massaging your uterus (or have an orgasm) to help the muscles contract. It will help slow it down a bit. What they don't tell you is that excessive injections will cause your joints to deteriorate the longer you use them. It is a quick fix to but not a solution. Take it from someone who has been through this for many many years. I should buy stock in Tampax.
Good luck to all.

B

I am so relieved to read all these posts about the connection between cortisone shots and abnormal uterine bleeding. I had a shot a couple of weeks ago in my shoulder and have been experiencing abnormal bleeding for several days. Never would have thought to connect the dots on this with cortisone injection, so thanks to all of you who posted about that.

Any comments on whether you need treatment to get your cycle back to normal - will it eventually go back or do you need hormone treatment? I'd rather not use anything (for fear of more side effects) unless absolutely necessary. Thanks for any advice.

I am so happy to have found this thread. I have received a cortisone injection along with a dose of oral cortisone pills on Sept. 20 of this year. This was around the time I usually get my period, and let me say, I am 31 and I have never ever been irregular. My cycle was always 28 days and that was it. So, anyway, I began spotting right on the day of the injection, so I naturally thought that my period was coming. But it never did. It was a never ending spotting up untill the 4th of October, when I got the actual bleeding. But I always have had cramps on the first day of my period, lucky or not, this time it was like : oops, surprise! No cramping, felt like PMS with all the mood swings and all though. But fine, I thought the 4th is the date of my new "cortisone altered" period, but in 14 days I started spotting again...I kinda had an intuition that all of these changes were caused by cortisone: steroid drugs are hard on our bodies, that's the fact. But that's when I actually got online I found this thread. After reading all of the posts it made me feel better about what was happening to me, but it also made me angry:why on earth did the doctor forget to mention this side effect? I asked him specifically, would this drug affect my cycle, because I am trying to get pregnant, and he assured me that it wouldn't....If I knew, I wouldn't have gotten the steroid treatment at all, because the condition was a solar dermatitis. It wasnt' responding to antihistamins and topical creams, but I would have survived it on my own, I am pretty sure. So, that's the story. Almost 2 months after cortisone, and my cycle is all screwed up still. Yesterday I went to my OBGYN, and she assured me that actually it takes a while for the cycle to get back to normal after steroid treatment. So, she basically confirmed that it was a side effect of the drug. Since my PAP was just in july, and it came back normal, she said there was no way for this abnormal spotting and periods to be because of some physical abnormality. She also examined me, and said everything was normal, and that I should just wait till "the nature works its way" as she put it. She said if in 2 months time my system doesn't get back on its track, she will prescribe a medicine, "that will jump start the cycle", so I guess it's a hormone as well... Anyways, right now it looks like I am getting a second period again this month and still hoping my body will get back to normal by itself. I hope my story will help those, whose doctors are denying the effect of cortisone on menstral cycle. It looks like there are too many of us, who have this effect, so it seems really weird to deny it. Good luck to you all, and I hope to hear on the updates from you guys! How long does it actually takes to get back to normal?

Menstural bleeding is one of the side effects a patient can experience after a Cortisone injection.

I have to chime in. I had a spine epidural in February of 09 and stopped my periods which were clockwork. I was put on progesterone to start and after ten days, I started my period. About two weeks later I discovered a lump which turned out to be grade 3 breast cancer. I am very concerned that this is connected.

I am so glad I found this thread. I was beginning to think I was crazy. I am 29 years old. In October 2009, I was given a cortisone injection for a horrible sinus infection. The day I got the injection was day 4 of my period. My period actually ended early that month. I definitely got relief from the sinus infection pain but then the craziness set in. I honestly felt psycho. I was having horrible, paranoid thoughts and anxiety. So bad it was hard for me to drive because I was terrified I was going to be in a wreck and killed. The mood swings were horrible. I would be in a great, happy mood one second and then something so tiny and stupid would set me off and I would flip out. I would get so angry it felt like flames were shooting off my body. Every single little tiny thing annoyed the heck out of me. It was absolutely awful! That lasted for about 2 weeks. When my next period started it was much heavier than normal and the cramps were horrific. I had a Mirena IUD and my periods were normally extremely light and no cramps whatsoever. My period ended up lasting for 19 days. Finally it stopped, I had no bleeding for 2 days. Around 7pm of the 2nd day of no bleeding, I was standing in my kitchen. I got a horrible pain in my vagina followed by a burning sensation. I ran to the bathroom to check my IUD string because the pain kind of felt like something was stabbing. When I first tried to feel, I felt nothing. It worried me because normally I could feel my strings fairly easily. When I pulled my fingers out to re-position there was a HUGE clot on my hand. It was so big that I thought I was holding my uterus and I FREAKED out. I tried to check the strings again but instead found my IUD about to fall into the toilet! I had the IUD for 8 months and I have had 2 children so I was at a very low risk of expelling the IUD. I went to my Dr the next day. I was bleeding extremely bad. He checked for damage to my cervix and found none thankfully. He put me on a very high dose of birth control pills (3 pills a day for 1 week, 2 pills a day for 1 week, 1 pill a day for 1 week) to get the bleeding stopped because I was anemic. Bleeding stopped after 10 days but I continued to spot occasionally. I have just started my period again since taking the pills and once again it is awful. Extremely large clots (golf ball to softball sized), random gushes, very bad cramping. I am so worried and scared. I have a Dr appointment tomorrow which will most likely result in D&C. That scares me itself but I am also scared for my future because I cannot keep functioning like this and I also want to have more kids eventually.

I was loving the IUD and had no problems like this at all until I got that stupid cortisone injection!

I have a similar story. I am 33 years old and my husband and I are trying to have a baby. I am on pain medication for my neck and so my doctor recommended getting a cortisone injection. The hope was that the cortisone would relieve my pain so I could get off the pain medication in case I became pregnant. I did go online to check out "side effects of cortisone injections" and wish I would have run across this thread! I have a regular 28 day cycle. I experienced all of the PMS symptoms, ie. sore breasts, acne, mood swings, but I have not had my period. When my period was late I was so excited. I thought that maybe I was actually pregnant we have been trying for over 2 years. So day 1 being late took a pregnancy test and it was negative, day 3 took a pregnancy test still negative, day 6 day 11 still negative......I couldn't figure out what was going on, until I remembered that the only thing that was different was the cortisone injection and decided to come onto the internet to see if I could find anything and I found this thread. I am so bummed that it looks like I am not pregnant, but just missed my period because of the injection :-( I wish I would have seen these posts before I got the injections, plus the injection didn't offer me any releif of my pain.