MOONFACE

Hello everyone!

I've had Crohns Disease for nearly 8 years now - diagnosed in 2009 at 12 years old but only recently been introduced to steroids during a flare up (they didn't want to give them to me when I was younger because of the side effects on growth etc so found other solutions).

Anyway I was put on Predisolone for 9 weeks and came off them about 5/6 weeks ago. Everything is great, I'm taking humira and some other daily tablets and feel I'm finally getting back into remission.

There's just one problem!! My face is far too round for my liking!!!

I've always been a good weight, always average only ever been underweight when I was diagnosed and Ive never been out of the healthy weight since - so I know its not due to my diet or anything.

I've always had a 'normal' sized face too, quite slim if anything. The moonface came up about half way through the 9 weeks of steroids - I can only describe it as 2 lumps of fat either side of my chin I literally look like a chipmunk

So I have a couple of questions!

Did your moonface go down?
How long did it take once you stopped taking the steroids?
Did it go down fast? (say it was still round for 3 months after finishing the steroids but then went down within a few weeks after the 3 months)
And is there anything I can do to get it to go down faster!!!

It might sound silly to some people - but I'm getting very self conscious and as a 19 year old younger woman its starting to really affect my confidence which I've never really had much of anyway.

Thanks in advance

Hi Ela,
Im sorry to hear you are having side effects! 2009 is same year I was diagnosed. With steroids its pretty much a given that you will experience some. When I was in the hospital quite a few months ago I was on high doses of IV steroids. I have a fairly round but not heavy face to start with and didn't notice the changes with everything that was going on but one day my doctor announced that my face was becoming very round so they really needed to try to stop the steroids ( think my response was something like my face was round to begin with, anything to keep it from getting rounder would be great). During a follow up several weeks (maybe two or three months I can't remember) he announced it was back to normal. I can completely understand feeling self conscious about it. So yes it does improve very slowly and imperceptibly usually but you will notice eventually that it's back to normal. Until then do your best to enjoy feeling better! Also, If you are into makeup, I believe there are tutorials on youtube that show how to minimize moonface with make-up if that would help you feel more like yourself.