Allergy Shots and Immunotherapy

If your allergy symptoms can’t be controlled by medication, your doctor may recommend immunotherapy injections. Immunotherapy attempts to build a tolerance to an allergen by injecting small, then increasingly larger, doses of it into your body. The hope is that this therapy reduces the frequency and severity of your reactions.

Immunotherapy works especially well for people who have strong reactions to airborne allergens that cannot be avoided, including pollens, dust, molds and animal danders.

If your allergist or immunologist believes you’re a candidate for immunotherapy, your care team will develop an allergy treatment program specifically for you based on your clinical history.

Allergy Injections

Your injections will likely start at very small doses. With each injection, the dose is typically raised until you reach a predetermined maximum.

Some people have reactions during the injection process. A reaction could include a sore or swollen injection site or an increase in your original symptoms. These types of symptoms are almost always seen in the first 30 minutes following an injection. This is why you will be required to wait 30 minutes following a treatment before leaving your doctor's office, so you can be treated if you have a reaction.

Immunotherapy injections are usually given once or twice a week while the allergen dose is being raised. The frequency reduces the risk of reaction, so you can get to the maximum therapeutic dose, also called the maintenance dose, as fast as possible.

After the maintenance dose, your care team will likely decrease the frequency of your doses to around once a month.

Relief

You probably won’t notice a difference in your symptoms right away. Typically it takes six to 12 months for symptoms to subside, although some people get relief after only a few months.

Your allergist or immunologist will track your immune response to treatment throughout immunotherapy, and decide how long you should receive injections based on your response.