Would you / did you go to the GP to get diagnosed with hay-fever?

[Docdiagnosis]

I consider myself to have hay-fever and have done for more than a decade.
Classic symptoms, often helped by antihistamines. I have never been to a doctor to get diagnosed officially.

Last year, dd (now 8) started showing classic symptoms too. Sneezing, itchy throat + eyes as well as a few nose bleeds.

So I started giving her an antihistamine some days (over the counter, appropriate dose). All the symptoms eased and it was the end of the nose bleeds.

Summer again and here we are again. Same symptoms, no nose bleeds fortunately this time so far. So again I believe she has hayfever and I've given an antihistamine some days.

DH thinks I can't just declare she has hay-fever. That she needs a diagnosis from a doctor and that I shouldn't just be giving her tablets myself.

I think it's a waste of a doctors time unless she had severe symptoms that antihistamines weren't helping.

DH is very anti medication and recently wanted to leave dd with a UTI rather than take her to an out of hours (bank hol and we were away from home for a week). He thought it was a waste of a docs time and it would go away on it's own. (I took dd anyway and came away with antibiotics.)

YABU - Take her to the GP to get diagnosed
YANBU - continue as you are

(Bonus points if anyone can recommend anything safe to treat hayfever in pregnancy please 🤧.)

I'm fairly certain he wouldn't take her, he just would leave her suffering unnecessarily, like he would have for the UTI.

Annoying since it's not like I'm the type to take her to the docs unnecessarily either. She's probably been to the GP about 3 times her entire life.

I too was going to ask what exact test/machinery/tool does your DH think your GP would have in a surgery to 'test'??? I'd love to know. Diagnosis based on symptoms!

The only caveat would be someone going to an allergy specialist clinic, and having a range of pollens/seeds etc tested. Unless there were other, serious allergies, a GP would never refer to an allergy clinic for hayfever. Tell DH that he could always pay for private allergy testing though 😉

Yes, a GP can prescribe steroid sprays etc if OTC meds don't help, therefore pharmacy is the 1st place to go.

Exactly this!! I have really severe hayfever. 2 of my 3 kids do too but to a lesser extent, so I just bought them each a pack of 30 cetirizine tablets and remind them to take one each morning before they go to school.

Total waste of time seeing the GP. I really don't understand people who are "anti-medication". Like it's some sort of badge of honour.

there is a big gap between not goving medicines when they are not necessary and not giving medicine at all or giving non-treatments like homeopathy .

I’m no fan of taking medicines for the sake of it. But if you did make an appointment all the doctor is going to do is going to listen to you say what you have told us and say “yes, does indeed sound like hay fever, keep buying tablets from the pharmacy”

If he's anti medication, why does he want you to take her to the Dr? What's he hoping to achieve?

I'd take her in for an allergy test is she is still uncomfortable after antihistamines. I did this as they were only just taking the edge off for me and it turns out the list of things I'm allergic to is a lot longer than I thought. A lot of them were things inside my house I was able to remove and I now take much stronger medication that fully removes symptoms now my house is clearer.

I only spoke to my GP because I didn't know it was hay fever. I "only" got the coughing worse than normal and chest pain. No snotty nose and my eyes are fine.

I get my hay fever meds on prescription.

I was diagnosed by the GP, even though it was obviously hay fever (my DF had it too), but that was back in the 1960s. I don't know if you could get hay fever meds OTC then, but my parents were very hard up and would probably have taken me to the GP anyway so I could have them for free on the NHS.

The other thing you could get back then was desensitising injections. I had them yearly for about 5 years, and was hay fever free for about 20 years. Now, you have to see an immunologist and get skin tests. I was referred and tested, but the counsultant had to get funding approved for the shots, and it was turned down.

I'm allergic to dust, feathers, fungal spores and a few other things, so I take anti-histamine all year round.

I was told by my GP after having a bad allergic reaction to a cat that allergy testing wasn't a "thing" for people like me, who react, but not badly enough to be hospitalised. That how would he know what to start testing me for, which is fair enough as the things people can be allergic to is a big long list. I know I don't have food allergies like nuts/dairy which can be so serious. I know by experience that i'm allergic to grass but probably not trees as my symptoms only seem to start in June and I'm fine in April/May when the tree allergy people are suffering.

I probably could pay for private testing but what's the point if I can just keep taking the fexofenadine and piriton, and having a pack of piriton in the bag for emergencies, like when I go into a friend's house and didn't know they had a cat.

The only thing I would say is that she needs an antihistamine everyday, not just in days she seems bad with the hayfever.

They actually recommend that hayfever remedies are started in March for most people, so that their bodies can build up the immunity to the pollen.

THIS! I was coming on to say the same thing. I don’t think you need a GP to diagnose hay fever though.

Of course I wouldn't take DD to the doctor to diagnose hayfever. What an arse your DH is though.

My DH had bad hayfever all his life. DD2 kept having sneezing and runny nose in early spring from age 6. Took me about 3 springs to realise. She now has had hayfever meds since age 8 including antihistamine and eye drops. She's 12 now. Older DD has only started displaying hayfever symptoms recently. She's 15.

I've told the GP younger DD has hayfever and it's now on her notes (was there for something else) but they never diagnosed it themselves.

Just a warning my DD had a UTI when she was 7 (she was symptomless other than invisible blood in her urine - only showed on a dip test) and ended up with sepsis, in hospital for 7 days on intravenous antibiotics. It was touch and go for a while. Do not ever ignore a UTI in a child!

Hayfever, just do what you are doing. The liquid antihistamine is very quick acting for children.

Sorry, got distracted by the dog! I meant to add don’t let him make you second guess yourself. You do what you think is right.

My Ds has bad hayfever. He started on prescription antihistamines during lockdown when I had a phone appointment and told them no OTC drugs were touching it