Can Steroid Inhalers Make Breathing Worse

It's not likely (but not impossible) that an inhaled steroid would make your breathing worse but keep a couple of things in mind - inhaled steroids aren't fast acting - they take a while to start to have an effect (so if you're not taking something that is designed to work in the short term it may take a while to see the benefits of an inhaled steroid), inhaled steroids can worsen some. Maybe not by much, but it was literally, ‘wipe your tears, stop shaking, and breathe into this tube’. My numbers improved substantially since feb (and I’d only been intermittently on the inhalers for less than a month because of my bad experience) but my FEV1/FVC was still low (65% - it had been in the low 40’s before). yes, inhalers definitely make me feel worse sometimes. I can’ take a deep breath in so the medication isn’t as effective.

When I was doing inhaler treatments, I would use a nebulizer to get the medication through more of a mask instead. This seemed to help it be more effective in opening up my airways.