Why People Stop Taking Allergy Drops & Why They Should Continue

When patients start allergy drop immunotherapy following The La Crosse Method™ Protocol, they’re aware of the length of treatment. Changing how your body responds when exposed to allergens takes time — often three to five years.

So why do some patients stop mid-treatment? Here are some of the common reasons they stop, and why instead, they should stay the course.

They don’t feel immediate results

Most commonly, Allergychoices Pharmacy hears of individuals who stop treatment because they don’t feel immediate symptom relief. While a sudden change in symptoms would be a great outcome, it’s simply not how immunotherapy works.

Like allergy shots, allergy drop immunotherapy treats the cause of offending allergens by slowly introducing the body to precise doses of identified, problematic allergens. Over time, the provider gradually increases the dose of the allergens in the personalized prescription, until the prescription is at its highest strength and the patient’s symptoms are gone for a period of time.

Though you may start to feel symptom improvement after a year, it’s important to continue treatment for the entire duration to create long-lasting tolerance.

They’re impacted financially by out-of-pocket costs

Allergy drops are often not covered by insurance, so individuals may need to pay out of pocket. Each prescription is typically less than $150 for environmental allergies, and less than $175 for food allergies — both lasting ninety days.

This may just seem like yet another cost. One option is to pay for the prescription using a FSA, HSA, or new LSA (lifestyle savings account) plan. It can help people with budgeting for this cost at the beginning of the year, and the cost is then tax-free as HSA and FSA deductions are taken from paychecks pre-tax.

This Allergy Cost Calculator helps you add up what you pay monthly for symptom relievers, office visits, lifestyle modifications, and more. After successful allergy drop treatment, many people find these other costs dramatically decrease.

The larger investment of allergy drop treatment now may save you thousands of dollars on allergy-related expenses for years to come.

They’re not committed to three doses daily

Committing to doing anything daily can seem daunting, and that’s another reason some patients stop treatment, but we encourage that taking allergy drops becomes part of the daily routine — and patients find it to be manageable. There are so many ways to make a habit out of treatment:

• Get an adherence app for your phone
• Make a mark on your Allergy Drop Treatment Record or a calendar after each dose

Compared to other allergy immunotherapy treatments, allergy drops through Allergychoices are elegantly simple. Office visits are minimal, the drops can be taken wherever the patient is, the treatment is delivered right to the patient’s door… and more.

Why continue?

Stopping treatment at any point can halt the progress and momentum patients build during treatment. For example, if they stop taking allergy drops a year into treatment, any relief they feel at that point isn’t permanent — the body hasn’t done it’s full job in learning tolerance. Only when the maintenance doses are reached, and the body no longer shows symptoms for a period of time, will the “long term learning” happen that allows patients to stop treatment.

Continuing treatment until advised otherwise by a provider is the only way to build life-long tolerance to offending allergens, and to reap the lasting benefits of disease-modifying treatment.

If you’re ready to commit (or re-commit) to allergy drop treatment, find a provider near you experienced in using personalized allergy drop treatment following the La Crosse Method.