Steroid injections can increase your risk of bruising and bleeding. For that reason, you should be cautious about them if you take a blood thinning medication (anticoagulant) or if you have a bleeding disorder, such as hemophilia. Talk to your doctor about your health conditions and the medications you take for them, as well as any supplements you take.

But some injections require a more complex process. Your doctor may use imaging technology, such as a CT scan or ultrasound, to guide the needle to the part of your body that needs treatment. Once it’s in the right position, you’ll get an anesthetic to numb the site, followed by the steroid injection.

Like the cortisol your body makes, the corticosteroids delivered by steroid injections temporarily calm your immune system. That reduces inflammation so that you feel less pain. While steroids don’t offer any healing properties of their own, they can make you feel well enough to engage in rehabilitation -- such as physical therapy -- that can help repair what’s wrong with your body.

Cleveland Clinic: “Inflammation,” “Cortisone Shots (Steroid Injections),” “Corticosteroids,” “Hallux Rigidus,” “Tendonitis,” “Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection.”

After a steroid injection, you should be able to return to your normal routine the day after. However, take it easy and gradually increase your activity level. Ice or cold packs can provide relief if you feel discomfort.

Bursae (the plural of bursa) are fluid-filled sacs that provide cushioning and reduce friction between tendons, ligaments, bones, and skin. Bursitis is the painful inflammation of a bursa. It usually occurs in your shoulders, knees, elbows, and hips. Steroid injections, delivered to the area surrounding the affected bursa, both ease pain and reduce inflammation.

Your doctor might give you a steroid injection in your joint to deliver medication directly to the site of your pain. (Photo Credit: E+/Getty Images)

Some health conditions and circumstances make steroid injections less safe. Before you receive a steroid injection, your doctor should thoroughly review your medical history. They will likely advise you to avoid steroid injections if:

For example, if you don’t have any other health problems, a local steroid injection might be all you need for tendinitis. But if you have a condition such as rheumatoid arthritis, injections will be only one part of your treatment plan.

If you are getting an IV steroid injection, the injection site likely will be a vein in your arm. That will allow the steroid medication to move through your bloodstream to the parts of your body affected by inflammation.

Steroid injections provide safe and effective, though temporary, relief from pain and inflammation. The result — you’re better able to participate in your normal day-to-day activities.

Plantar fasciitis happens when connective tissue on the bottom of your foot (called plantar fascia) becomes inflamed. This can cause intense stabbing pain and tenderness in your heel. Steroid injections into your heel relieve pain for about a month and also significantly reduce inflammation.

Steroids taken in pill form or via IV go into your bloodstream and travel throughout your body. Sometimes, that’s necessary, such as when treating flare-ups of autoimmune diseases that affect several parts of your body -- such as multiple sclerosis. But doctors prefer steroid injections whenever possible, as they deliver steroid medication right where it needs to go. The medication does enter the bloodstream, but you likely won’t notice any side effects from it.

Often, you'll receive your steroid injection directly into the part of your body that it’s meant to treat, such as a painful joint. Common injection sites include:

Keloids are raised scar tissue that can develop after skin injuries due to surgery, body piercings, trauma, acne, and other causes. Steroid injections into the keloid can reduce their size and the irritation they cause. Sometimes, doctors recommend steroid injections before surgery to prevent keloids from forming at the incision site.

You will get your injection via a needle. The procedure varies depending on the purpose of the shot. Your doctor typically inserts a needle under your skin at the site of the pain. In some cases, you’ll get a local anesthetic to numb the spot where your doctor gives you the steroid injection.

There are a few. The shot can be painful. You may experience side effects, though serious side effects rarely occur. Also, steroid injections offer only temporary relief. They do not treat the cause of your pain.

Steroid injections, sometimes called cortisone shots, are injections of man-made drugs called corticosteroids that can help ease pain and inflammation (swelling) in specific areas of your body. Corticosteroids are similar to cortisol, a hormone your body makes in your adrenal glands. They are not the same as the hormone-related steroid compounds that some athletes use.

It can be. Your doctor may give you a local anesthetic before your steroid injection to prevent pain. You might experience a temporary increase in inflammation after your injection, which can be painful. This should go away within 24 hours as the steroid begins to work.

Steroid injections offer effective but temporary relief from pain caused by inflammation. For most people, they are a safe treatment. However, frequent steroid injections raise your risk of serious side effects, and they don’t mix well with certain health conditions or medications. Before you have a steroid injection, talk with your doctor about your health history and any current medications or supplements you take.

Make sure your doctor knows about any recent steroid injections you’ve had. In general, you should wait at least 3 months between shots and get no more than 3 shots per year. Frequent steroid injections raise your risk of osteoporosis, which causes a loss of bone mineral density and weakened bones.

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Your doctor may suggest you have a steroid injection to treat inflammation in your joints, or other inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, bad allergies, and asthma. There are different types of corticosteroids, including prednisone, methylprednisolone, and cortisone.

Depending on your case, your doctor may give you steroid injections along with pain medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, occupational therapy, or devices such as canes and braces.

While steroid injections can bring quick and lasting relief to pain and swelling, they do have some potential side effects to consider.Â

Steroid injections may also be given via an IV infusion. In this type of procedure, a health care provider inserts a needle into your vein, and the steroid enters your bloodstream over a certain period determined by your doctor. You’ll have an IV infusion in the hospital or an outpatient infusion center.

When inflammation occurs throughout your body, you may need systemic steroids, which circulate in your bloodstream in order to reach various places. Diseases such as lupus and systemic vasculitis (inflammation of your blood vessels) require systemic steroids. They are administered in a few ways:

In general, if a steroid injection successfully reduces your pain and inflammation, you can count on about 3 to 6 months of relief -- or longer. If your discomfort returns sooner, it can be a sign of other health conditions complicating your treatment, which may require a different approach. Ideally, your steroid injection will remain effective long enough for you to become more physically active and complete rehabilitation, which should bring long-lasting pain relief.

Sciatica is a painful condition that develops when something, such as a bulging, or herniated, spinal disk, presses against a nerve root in your spine. This triggers pain and inflammation in your sciatic nerve, which stretches from your butt down both of your legs. Steroid injections can reduce this pain. They’re given up to three times a year.

Arthritis involves painful inflammation in one or more joints. Steroid injections can quickly ease that discomfort in your ankles, hips, elbows, knees, shoulders, hands, feet, spine, and wrists.

Tendinitis is inflammation of the tendons, the connective tissue between your muscles and bones. Often caused by injuries due to overuse or strain, it commonly affects shoulders, elbows, and knees. Tennis elbow is one of the most common types of tendinitis. Your doctor will give you a steroid injection directly into the affected tendon to quickly reduce pain and swelling.

When you get ill or injured, your immune system responds by sending out inflammatory cells that aid in the healing process. As you get better, that immediate inflammation goes away. However, some types of injuries and diseases cause longer-lasting or chronic inflammation, which can mean ongoing pain.

There’s no set safe number of epidural steroid injections that you can have over your lifetime. Your doctor likely will limit the number to two to three per year to lower your risk of serious side effects, such as weakening the bones in your spine as well as the muscles near it.

You likely won’t need to put many limitations on your activities after a steroid injection, but it will depend on what part of your body was treated. Steroid injections in your spine, for example, may require you to avoid a lot of activity or exercise for up to a week. You likely will be able to do basic things such as grocery shopping and household chores. Steroid injections in other parts of your body typically have much shorter periods of restriction. Your doctor will outline the types of activities to avoid and for how long.

Local steroid injections treat specific areas of inflammation. For example, if you have painful arthritis in a toe, you will receive a local steroid injection directly into that toe. When possible, doctors choose local steroids over systemic steroids to reduce the side effects of treatment.