Insomnia is only one of the effects of short-term use of corticosteroids, according to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. According to the agency, other side effects include an increase in appetite, weight gain, fluid retention and bloating. Yes, I had what's called "moon face" — though no one said it to my face, lucky for them, or who knows what I might have done.
The side effects list concluded with "mood changes like irritability and anxiety." I guess what I had could be called "irritability and anxiety," but I would have called it IRRITABILITY AND ANXIETY.
I'm lucky I wasn't on Twitter then, because I'm sure I would have tweeted off a firestorm. I remember one night I stayed up till dawn, writing what I was sure was a brilliant treatise on marriage — on mine in particular. Today, I am so grateful that in my haste I lost the gargantuan document. I fear it would have revealed the workings of a madwoman.
I wasn't kidding when I told my doctor at our 12-week checkup that I felt like I did want to kill my husband at least once a day.
Even in normal times, I'm not what you would call a shrinking violet: I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent a lot of my time in Israel, a country known for its aggressiveness. I might not have realized what the steroids were doing to me had my husband not pointed it out — how we were fighting an awful lot even though I wasn't getting my period, with its bellicose PMS precursor. I wasn't kidding when I told my doctor at our 12-week checkup that I felt like I did want to kill my husband at least once a day.
No matter. He upped my dosage to 40 mg of steroids and kept me on the regimen until I was halfway through the pregnancy. I remember once when we were in the middle of an outlet mall, I cried into the phone, almost screaming, begging the doctor to reduce the dosage, even a little. Thankfully, he did reduce the medication soon after and then tapered me off slowly, and I got to feel like a normal person again — a normal pregnant person, who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
Sometimes when I'm tired from parenting, from the pandemic, from parenting during the pandemic, though, I miss the energy of the steroids, when I was feeling invulnerable and flying high.
end partial quote from:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/treat-covid-19-trump-taking-steroids-it-reminds-me-roid-ncna1242480
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