When you have hormone positive breast cancer, how to manage menopause?
Hi
I just finished breast cancer surgery and radiation I was taken off my HRT last October. I am 65 I have major menopause symptoms and wondered what women do that have had a breast cancer and are not allowed to take estrogen to get through this phase of life. I cannot sleep because of the hot flashes all night and now I have to start tamoxifen 5 mg which I'm hoping does not increase my night sweats I miss my estrogen/Progesterone and I'm at a loss. Is there anything you can take to help I just feel ill all the time. Anyone else have this kind of experience. I was on bioidentical hormones my cancer is estrogen progesterone positive HRT negative. My oncologist did put me on vagifem thank god for my bladder issues
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Hi
As I did not have an invasive cancer I am not taking any medications. I couldn't tolerate tamoxifen for 6 days so there's no way on the planet I'm taking an AI my body my choice
Hi
Thanks for the info but seriously are you kidding why can they not cover a medication for women when you are going through such a horrific experience in life cancer that's insane I will take the road of my naturopath. Again big pharma controlling.
Hi! What were your tamoxifen side effects? Also how old are you? I am 46. Will be starting this med very soon after my radiation treatments are over.
Hi
I am 65. Day two of tamoxifen headache which increased daily. Nothing I took got rid of it, my brain felt very weird, nausea, ringing of the ears, hot flashes all night they were just constant, muscle spasms in my calves, fatigue x 100. This was only 6 days for me at 5 mg. I'm very hypersensitive to medication I was hopeful with this but no thank you
Oh goodness, that sounds like a lot of side effects. To many to continue the medication. That’s what happened to me when I was using yuvafem. I had migraines. Problem was I did not think it was from the medicine. I thought it was just my seasonal allergies giving me the migraines. I stopped it. But I was on it to long for my own good. I am hoping tamoxifen is different and does not give me those headaches back. I never had hot flashes before either. So not looking forward to that. I do have zofran in case I get nauseous. Did you have high grade or low DCIS?
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Originally it was dcis er/pr+ her2 neg stage 0. But when they removed it and did the pathology there was a microscopic break in one of the milk ducts so that put me to Stage 2 but the doctor said it was nothing to be worried about and my lymph nodes were negative
Oh ok I see. That makes sense. Did you have to get a lumpectomy and radiation? Any chemo? Was this your first time having breast cancer?
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They found it during my 2-year checkup mammogram I had to go in 2 days later for four needle biopsies and then the next week so my doctor and he told me I had breast cancer. So I had a lumpectomy in December and my surgeon was awesome because my breast still looks normal and then in February I saw the radiologist in London Ontario and he found the microscopic break in my pathology of my milk duct so I had to have another surgery February 20th Sentinel node and that was clear and then I had 20 treatments of radiation in 10 days felt great during it but now 6 weeks out I have Wicked fatigue in the afternoon it's very frustrating I have to just lay down I hope this doesn't last for the whole summer. How about you
Sounds very similar to me. I am happy everything went well for you though. Except the fatigue of course. Mine was detected on a routine mammogram. They found some calcifications. A week later they biopsied the two spots they found. I got a call back the day after the biopsies, they told me it was atypical hyperplasia. Even with atypical symptoms they still
Set up a consultation with a breast surgeon because they told me they remove anything atypical these days. My surgery was set for February of this year. Had the lumpectomy. When that pathology came back, they found a very small area with DCIS. I did have clear margins so no need for additional surgery. Then I met with an oncologist who told me to wait to start my tamoxifen after my radiation. I am still doing radiation now. I am set to have 21 treatments total. Last 5 are targeted boots they told me. I am in my second week now. Like you, you could never even tell I had a lumpectomy done. The scar is almost invisible now.
Hi
Well that all sounds good. So are you doing g 5wks of treatment. My radiologist gave me the option of doing 20 treatments in 10 days or 4 wks I chose 10 days since I had to go out of town for my radiation