How long for moonface to go away and does it go away completely?

I am currently in my first flare and have been on varying doses of prednisone since October 2017. I started at 40mg daily and then switched to a different GI and was put on 60mg as we tried out other medications. I was on 60mg from around November up until January/February 2018. In December 2017 I was hospitalized for a week and put on 300mg of IV hydrocortisone daily. I was then put on Remicade, which ultimately failed and was released from the hospital. I first started to notice the moon face appearing quite rapidly around my exit from the hospital and by January had a full blown moon face. It continually got worse into February as I started up hydrocortisone enemas 100mg. So when being released from the hospital I was on 85mg of steroids daily, 60 orally through prednisone and 25mg equivalent of prednisone through the 100mg hydrocortisone enemas. I eventually tapered down to 40 mg of prednisone and stopped the enemas in February. On April 9, 2018 I started my taper and went from 40mg to 30mg of prednisone, and then two weeks later on April 23 I went down to 20mg. On May 7 I went down to 15mg and then on May 21 I went down to 10mg and have been on that for a few days. I still havent seen much change in my face as I have read that some people start to lose their moon face as they taper. I have also read that some people have said their moon face hasn't gone away, and read a post that someone said their doc said that some people don't lose the moon face. I have lost 15 lbs so far during my taper as I started off with my normal weight at 140, then went down to 120 when I became hospitalized, then went up to 160 and now back down to 145. I am a 5'11 Male 20 years old. I usually have a slim face with high cheekbones and defined jawline however now i have a huge double chin and my cheeks stick way out, I don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror and I had a friend whom I hadn't seen in about a year say that if I didn't act like me or sound like me he wouldn't have noticed it was me. I was wondering if this moon face is actually going to go away. How long should it take to go away, and if it does go away does it go away completely and I will look exactly like my old self, or will I be fuller? I hope that I can go back to the exact way I used to look as I have had moon face for like 3-4 months and I do not like the way I look. I would like to hear your stories about your experiences with moon face and whether or not you guys lost it completely or if you look a little fuller in the face now, and how long it took for yours to go away. Thanks guys.

Moon-face will go away 2-3 weeks after ceasing prednisone. Prednisone makes you retain water, while you are on it, which causes moonface, and some bloating. That water retention goes away after ceasing pred. After ceasing pred, I usually loose a couple pounds of weight from water retention (maybe a 1/3 of the weight-gain).

Prednisone also causes an insatiable appetite, which causes weight-gain that's lasting. This is the bulk of my weight-gain from pred (call it 2/3) and it is lost through responsible eating and light exercise over a period of 4-6 months after ceasing prednisone.

Living with an UC has a lot of dramatic changes to our bodies, from rapid weight gain from pred, rapid weight loss during flares, hairloss from flares, and other things. Unfortunately, it is just something we have no control over, and part of living with it.

It took me a couple of months to loose the moon face once I was completely off all the preds. I maybe a little fuller in the face not really sure, that was 5 months ago. I feel I am ageing more rapidly but that may just be because I am 63. The hair loss well that is another subject I haven't regained all of my hair yet. The rashes started a couple of months ago. Could be the other meds I take or just the u/c for that matter like iPoop said. But I am grateful that I am not flaring today, still a bit tired from the flu which set off another flare for 2 weeks but I AM getting better. U/C is not for sissies that's for sure.

I have heard some people say the moon face can last as long as half the course of prednisone for some. So if you were on pred for a year, it could take 6 months. If it's 8 weeks, it could take 4 weeks. I guess some people get lucky and it goes away faster.

I was on 20 - 30mg pred for over a year, and my moon face was pretty much gone after 2 weeks. I have, however, gained a crap ton of weight and THAT is still around.