Hi everyone, first time poster here. I was diagnosed with RRMS in March 2022 and have this week started taking tecfidera. Today is day 4 and I’ve felt the flushing (although not sure that quite covers it) has been worse each day. About 4 hours after my dose my face gets red and hot then I get a sunburn type rash across my chest, neck, shoulders and down my arms. I know it’s very early days for me and my body needs to adjust but when I spoke to the nurse this morning, she said it’s too soon for aspirin and that I need to give it more time. I’m a bit confused since aspirin seems to be a fairly safe drug, and why I need to delay if it can help. Also a bit concerned at how bad this might get. Does anybody have experience of when aspirin in usually recommended? For info, I’m taking my dose approx 30 mins after a substantial breakfast but would welcome any more tips for managing this!
Hi - welcome to the club 
I didn’t get a huge amount of flushing when I started, but it did reduce over time. I can still get it now, several years later, but not often - once every few weeks.
Don’t know why you were told to wait to take aspirin. I was never told that. You could ring the Tecfidera support line, and ask their advice.
It might be worth experimenting with when you take it. I always take mine about three quarters of the way through breakfast and my evening meal
Dan
I think everyone has a different experience, ive been on Tecfidera for for 3.5 years and had minimal flushing for 2 or 3 weeks at start but that disappeared. I take my morning tablet usually with thick smoothie but have taken it many times on an empty stomach with no issues. I was always told that paracetamol was a good match too Tec. Good luck.
Retro.
Hi I had the flushing too but have been advised to take some aspirin about half an hour before the tecfidera and its been so effect nipping the flushing in the bud. Nor sure if it will help the other side effects though.
Hi Stripes,
Did you start on the half dose, or have you gone straight onto the full strength?
While I was on Tecfidera I only ever really flushed when I took the drug on an empty stomach or light breakfast.
A high protein was breakfast recommended to me.
I never really found a pattern, but felt a couple boiled eggs, a protein shake & one of the little bottles of Actimel helped.
Good luck.
Thanks for all your replies, really appreciate it! I was on 120mg once a day for the first two weeks and today I’m starting to take 120mg twice a day.
Thankfully, things have settled a bit when it comes to flushing, it’s less frequent now which I’m glad about. When it came on quite quickly and what I felt was quite extreme, I did worry about how bad it could get.
I’ve found waiting an hour after eating seems to work well for me - I was having something fatty too but not sure that made any difference.
Very interested to hear about paracetamol instead of aspirin though, will bear that in mind.
Thanks again everyone 