Hay Fever Injection

The Kenalog injection is a steroid treatment that alleviates the symptoms of hay fever for individuals with extreme allergies to pollen, when over the counter and prescribed treatments have been unsuccessful. With just one dose of Kenalog, hay fever sufferers should experience reduced symptoms for the entire hay fever season.

Hay fever is caused by the body’s immune system reacting unnecessarily to pollen. A Kenalog injection does not cure hay fever, it just temporarily suppresses the immune system enough to take away the symptoms in most cases.

Each Kenalog injection contains Triamcinolone acetonide 40mg/1ml as the active ingredient which belongs to a group of medicines called corticosteroids (steroids). The principal effect of corticosteroids is to reduce the body’s inflammatory and allergic response. One of the main risks associated with this medication, is the heightened risk of infections and illnesses due to the lowering of the immune system. It is theoretically possible that if you were to get an infection or illness, such as chicken pox or measles within 3 weeks of having a Kenalog injection, it would be a worse episode than would otherwise be the case.

Kenalog injections were given routinely to severe hay fever sufferers via the NHS until about 5-10 years ago but have now fallen out of favour. The NHS no longer administers Kenalog for hay fever as their guidelines have determined that the potential risks do not justify the benefits that people may gain from the treatment. There are many people who have used this treatment to good effect, and while we do not directly disagree with the assessment of the NHS, we do believe in patient choice, and are happy to make this treatment available to people who have thoroughly considered the risks.