How do I know if I have hay fever?

[Shining Light]

And can any Brits suggest good brands of medicines? Without having to book an allergy test how else can I be sure? 

Symptoms are intermittent, perhaps one day in every five, and they don't all happen each day:

- Itchy and somewhat watery eyes, feeling almost hot behind my eyelids

- Dry throat and coughing, usually when running outside 

- Sneezing in bouts of six to eight, with lots of hitching*, where usually there would be no hitching and only one or two sneezes

Obviously these could point to other ailments but it's been more noticeable for the last six weeks or so. The pollen count is very high today, but I live in central London so the air quality is awful anyway. 

 

* 😋

 

[TheCakeIsAlive]

With the extremely high pollen count it is expected that even people who normally don't experience symptoms might get some. So it might be a temporary plight. 

I don't tend to buy branded stuff, so I'll just list active ingredients instead, all available in Boots cheap and cheerful selection.

Loratadine is one of the most common active ingredients. It does absolutely nothing for me, so I tend to get the cheap and cheerful Cetirizine, 10mg, one a day. It can take a few days for the drugs to take proper effect, something about building up a level in the bloodstream I believe. 

If you don't mind taking steroids, I can recommend Beclometasone Dipropionate (Hayfever relief spray, boots home brand). Taking half the recommended dose, half the amount of times seems to work better for me than any oral drugs. 

Good luck!

[Heathcliff]

I thought I just didn't get hayfever, though a couple of years I have briefly felt possible symptoms in that direction.

Last summer, when walking home from work, on some days I got quite sniffly, and had watery eyes, in a way I couldn't explain. No sneezing, nothing more serious- all very mild, but I wondered if it was hayfever.

Though I would usually never mention hayfever to my family in conversation, I plucked up the courage to mention it to my mum because I didn't think anyone in our family got hayfever. She said that my dad occasionally got it on some summers, but not very badly at all. So it turned out a very tiny bit of my genetic makeup does get hayfever.

[Klingon]

the only way to know for certain or not is to talk to your doctor!