The flu vaccine, do you ever suffer from side effects?

[Rustydogtail]

As I'm now in my 50's, suffer from a few chronic health issues (not respiratory), care for an elderly parent with advanced dementia and have myself suffered from flu in every decade since my 20's I've decided to have the flu jab this winter.

However, I'm really concerned that it'll make me feel like crap. I know if it does it's unlikely to last long but I already feel like crap every day (IBS, perimenopause, endometriosis) and really don't want to feel worse than I do although from experience I know a dose of the flu will make me feel dreadful so a small price to pay I suppose if I do react.

Do you get your shots and do you ever have reactions from it?

I get tenderness at the injection site, but that's it. I tend not to react to immunisations, though (flu or others). I have a friend who feels quite ill after them. So I suspect the best predictor will be how you usually react to inoculations, not how others respond. Better to have the jab than the full force of the illness, though.

Had mine yesterday, same as most people slightly tender arm the injection site is a bit swollen usually goes down in a couple of days other than that feel fine.
i had a bout of flu three years ago got it before I had an appointment for the jab I honestly thought I was dying at one point I have never felt so ill it took about six weeks before I felt reasonably well again, if you can OP get the flu jab it’s worth a couple of days of feeling a bit meh i know it doesn’t stop anyone getting flu but does lessen the severity.

It’s really is, each time I’ve had it (including swine flu) I genuinely thought I was on my way out! I’m silly not to have had the jab before now.

I usually have a temperature of above 38°C but this year I took paracetamol every 4 hours for 12 hours and for the first time I had no temp and my arm felt comfortable!

The surgery kept sending me texts until I booked the flu jab due to T1 diabetes.

I suspect the influenza virus strains have become more agressive since the 1990s as the symptoms I was getting with the vaxine were getting crazy. That will be why people with health conditions need to get vaxinated.

Thanks everyone, it’s all booked for a few weeks time.

Do most of you find that the jab has helped you avoid catching the flu altogether or does it mean you get less severe symptoms?

I get a patch of very localised inflammation which aches a little. Otherwise nothing at all. I don’t know whether it’s the jab or natural immunity, but I haven’t had flu for decades.

I haven't had flu for 30-odd years (now in my 60s).

I had my flu and Covid vaccines yesterday. Feel a bit tired today and both arms are sore at the top but not so sore it’s stopping me from doing anything.

edited to add, I did also prat fall in the carpark a few hours before getting my vaccines giving myself a bloody knee and pulling a whole load of muscles so some of my aches and tiredness will be due to general clumsiness rather than the vaccines.

Ditto this. Also, agree with what everyone is saying about reactions: just a sore arm sometimes. Last year, nothing at all. I think the year before I did feel ill for a few days but I was feeling a bit under the weather when I went for the jab. I won't make that mistake again.

I had mine thursday, felt ok friday, wiped out and tired with achy arm yesterday, early night and I feel fine today
Its your immune system reacting to the vaccine, so a good thing
Not worth the risk to you and your parents putting it off
Most people I know have it strategically so they have a couple of days off in case they feel crap

Yes. The flu shot tends to give me a horrible headache. The Covid one exhausts me. I do them together and just plan 48 hours of down time. Some years that has been nothing but sleep. Some years it’s me binge watching something.

I have immune system problems and my husband is immune suppressed. I’m willing to deal with some pretty bad temporary side effects.

I had reactions for a few days from the covid vaccines but not flu. The most I get is a sore arm.

I’ve been having flu shots every year since 2017 after our whole family got wiped out by it in 2016. I’ve never had it since. Influenza A is everywhere in Australia at the moment but so far my family has escaped it.

The thing is, the vaccine changes every year, to reflect the different strain(s) of the flu virus. So it's impossible to say if you're going to have a reaction or not - most of the time all I've had is a sore arm, but one year I really didn't feel well for around 24 hours.

But these side effects are much, much better than getting actual flu.

My arm aches for a day or two but that’s it.

Early 70s. NHS flu vaccine booked for later this month. Usually get a sore arm for 24 hours, so I ask for the vax in my left arm as I'm right handed.

If I've had a morning jab, I feel OK until around late morning the following day. Then I feel slightly headachy, fatigued, cold and that feeling that you might be coming down with something and all you want to do is curl up with a book or a good film. A couple of paracetamol and a quiet day and early night and by the third day I am fine.

The only reaction I have is a sore arm for a few days.

I have never knowingly had flu, but you can have it asymptomatically, or mildly, and I might have just thought it was a bad cold. Also, I live by myself, so I don't have anyone else bringing germs into the house.

There will be a whole range of factors influencing whether people get ill with flu or not, not just vaccination.

I have had the jab for a few years now and never felt anything, not even an ache.

Never had flu in my life.🤞
My OH had it when he was younger and said it was awful, really knocks the stuffing out of you.
I know he got annoyed when people would be off work for a day or two and come back full of beans saying they had "flu".😠

I pay for one every year and never had any side effects other than a slightly sore arm.

I know he got annoyed when people would be off work for a day or two and come back full of beans saying they had "flu".😠

But they might have done. However, unless they were in hospital anyway, they'd be unlikely to be tested for it, and wouldn't know. Flu symptoms can range from asymptomatic through mild cold, to bad cold, to bedridden with fever, to death. The fact it can be asymptomatic is one reason it can spread so easily, because people just don't know they have it. The last time I (knowingly) had covid was because we still had to test before going into the office - didn't have any symptoms. Flu can be like that, but as we don't test for it (and can't self-test,) there's usually no way of knowing except in the bad cases.

No reaction at all to this year’s one. Nothing. Not even a slightly sore arm. Hope that doesn’t mean I’m not making antibodies.

It was catching flu that made me start getting the jab. Crawling to he bog and praying for death is a motivator. I haven't had it since.

TBF flu is one of those lurgies that you tend not to get often.

Had mine last week (usually have COVID at the same time) slightly sore arm.. Preferable to flu,where I was once hospitalised.

Yes, I always feel really rough for a few days so I don’t have it any more.

Had the jab last year but got awful flu - my first time of getting it and it was like nothing I'd had before, nowhere near a bad cold, just absolutely horrendous. I remember being up early on Xmas morning, a houseful of people, and just crying on my own at 4am not knowing how I'd get through the day. Maybe it would have been even worse without the jab though 🤷