Hay fever season: keeping a simple diary

Each spring, as the pollen rises, the same small signs return — itchy eyes, a runny nose, the sneeze that won't quite finish. Hay fever season has a rhythm, and a few notes can help you see yours clearly.

It is more common than it sometimes feels. Allergy organisations estimate that around one in five people live with hay fever — allergic rhinitis, to give it its proper name — and it often travels hand in hand with asthma. Pollen tends to climb through spring and into summer, though the exact months depend on where you live and what you react to. For many people it is less a single bad week and more a long, low season.

Why a diary helps

This isn't our idea — allergy bodies themselves suggest keeping a simple symptom diary, because patterns are hard to hold in your head across months. A season's worth of small notes can show you, and your doctor or practitioner, what actually sets your symptoms off and when they tend to peak.

You don't need to write much. On the days things flare, a quick note of how strong it was, and what you'd been doing — a windy afternoon, freshly mown grass, an hour in the garden — slowly builds a picture that a single bad morning never could.

What's worth noting

The days symptoms flare, and roughly how strong. Where you were and what you'd been doing beforehand. What you've taken, and when. And, if it applies to you, how your chest felt too — because the two so often move together.

One bad morning tells you little. A whole season, noted lightly, tells you a great deal.

When hay fever and asthma travel together

Many people with asthma also live with hay fever, and higher pollen can stir up both. Noting them side by side, season to season, gives a fuller picture to bring to a review. One thing worth taking seriously: in some places, the mix of high pollen and certain storms can bring on thunderstorm asthma, which can be sudden and serious. That is squarely a matter for your doctor or practitioner and your asthma plan — a diary is for noticing patterns, not for managing a flare in the moment.

For the appointment

When you do sit down with a doctor or practitioner, a clear record of your season saves the slow work of remembering out loud — and makes it easier to talk through what to do before next spring comes around.