When do side effects of anastrozole begin?

I've been on it for 9 months. My cholesterol & A1c are up. Woman on this drug have a higher potential to develop diabetes. I have all the other side effects. Seeing my oncologist Thursday. Would like to be off the potent drug. Pharmacists where gloves when counting this drug with a spatula & wash their trays afterwards. This drug is toxic.
Carolyn

I took Exemestane for 30 days and was switched to Anastrozole because my insurance didn't cover Exemestane. I used a GoodRx coupon which (in 2020) brought the cost down to $59. Now I've checked out the Mark Cuban online pharmacy out of curiosity since I'll be done with AI's at the end of the year. They now offer Exemestane at a price close to Anastrozole.

I believe pharmacists wear gloves and wash trays after dispensing any drugs in order to keep things sanitary and prevent cross contamination. I would not describe this drug as toxic when used as directed.

Even an aspirin is toxic under the right circumstances, as are many of the “natural” remedies on the market.
Medications, especially ones that treat more serious diseases like cancer and even metastatic disease, are a cost vs benefit decision. Does the benefit in treatment outweigh the side effects is something we each have to answer.
I took this drug for 10 years and yes, there were and are remaining side effects. The benefit of this is that I am still here 20 years past the date I was told I should get my affairs in order because I had a very aggressive cancer.
I am guessing you made a similar decision since you are at 9 months on it. Are you planning to ask for a possible switch to another type of hormone therapy?

Any of the A.I pills will inflame arthritic joints. I had to quit after my left knee bkew out Symptom mimicked a meniscus tear. I was in a wheelchair from 9/15/2022 until March of 2023 and had 32 ml of an anti-inflammatory injected and 6 ml of Durolane and took Tramadol for pain (50 mg,) but very sparingly. I was off everything for 9 months, then tried 5 months of Tamoxifen. My side effect on Anastrozole could have been predicted before putting me through it, because I had been one of 3,000 people in a clinical trial called the MOST trial for 20 years, until 2020 but my oncologist, quite frankly, acted like he didn't care if I lived or died,. When I told him of the teariness, excruciating back pain, mood swings, brain fog, vivid violent nightmares, blurry vision, he simply said, "Don't take it then" and got up and walked out of the examining room. No suggestion of alternative pans of action, Wouldn't order me an oncotype ("You don't need one"). When I was literally in a wheelchair, his remark was, "You're just old." He saw me a grand total of 2 times in 8 months and denied that any of the symptoms i suffered with from December of 2021 until 2023 were caused by his prescribing Anastrozole to a women with severe osteoarthritis and 2 damaged joints (left knee and elbow), He did not order any expensive tests,because he "didn't want to get dinged by Medicare" On Tamoxifen, I had exteme fatigue that left me unable to be up for more than 3 hours at a time and non-stop UTI infections. I quit all adjuvant therapy drugs on Aug. 30, 2023. I did have 33 radiation treatments, which I hope will protect me. My Texas oncologist finally got me an oncotype and it was 29. My tumor was 11 mm, 95% estrogen positive, 1A and I was 76 when diagnosed on Pearl Harbor Day in 2021,

To answer the original question of this thread, I've been on anastrozole for 2 months now. My oncologist advised me I might experience stiffness, which started about 2 weeks ago. She also advised daily stretching exercises and walking, which has definitely helped a lot. I was feeling especially stiff in the morning getting out of bed, and so I started taking it at bedtime, instead of in the morning. THAT was a game changer. I'm not nearly as stiff in the morning (which is when I usually like to walk or exercise). So, that simple change makes it more manageable. Anecdotally, I also started taking omega-3 at night, which seems to be helping.

This is definitely a strong drug with side effects, but in my case, they are slightly uncomfortable, but manageable. I've read about other alternatives, but everything I read confirms that anastrozole is the most effective for keeping my cancer from returning. THAT is the single most important thing to me! Worth a bit of manageable discomfort if I get to keep working at the job I love, keep hugging my grandbabies, keep watching sunrises and sunsets, keep exploring this wonderful world for a long, long time to come. That's my plan!

Good luck! Keep learning about what you can do......and know you are never, ever alone in this fight. 🙂

I was thinking the same as previously post from englewgs - take the Anastrosole and deal with the side effects so the cancer does not come back. By me the Prolea shots for the beginning osteoporosis accelerated by the chemo was a bad combination. Side effects started after two weeks with joint pain and insomnia and after a year and a half I could not walk nor lay down. Getting out of bed was more than a struggle. I am off the meds for 5 month still have issues with walking. I probably should have stopped earlier, but as said, I stuck it out as long as I could. Walking is definitely a good thing. Some days I could walk more than others and it kept brain from thinking too much.
Wish you the best - keep a positive outlook, but listen to your body.

I was put on Anastrozole on Feb. 1, 2022 after my lumpectomy on 1/27/2022, so barely a week out of surgery. I also had a seroma (infection) and was put on 500 mg. of Cephalexan to be taken every 4 hours, which went on for days. We always go to Cancun for 2 weeks in April, near Easter. My side effects began while we were in Cancun, when I began to feel teary for no apparent reason. I knew I was going to burst into tears if I didn't leave the table of 16 family members enjoying a lovely dinner lagoon-side. It had been roughly 10 weeks since I started on Anastrozole. As time went on I began to experience blurry vision, mood swings, the teariness, excruciating back and joint pain and vivid violent nightmares. I tried to talk to my Illinois oncologist about it and his response was to say, "Don't take it then" and to walk out of the examining room. As I was walking along a city street in Chicago to meet a girlfriend for lunch, my left knee---already fragile from a bicycling accident---blew out and I was unable to walk he .8 of a mile back to my condo. I had to call an Uber. It was Sept. 15, 2022. For 4 days I iced my knee and took Ibuprofen, which did nothing. After 4 days I hobbled to the nearest convenient care on Michigan Avenue and was X-rayed for the first of what would become 4 times. No break. The doctor suggested that I get a walker. He gave me a prescription for pain, but it hurt so much to try to walk (meniscus tear symptoms) that I could not make it to a pharmacy across the street. I saw an ad for the joint pain clinic in Oak Brook and drove myself there during Rush Hour traffic, where a board-certified Doctor (Dr. Nick) X-rayed me again on 9/21 and injected me with 32 ml of an anti-inflammatory drug and 6 ml. of Durolane. I then hobbled with a cane and also used a wheelchair from then until March of 2023. It was horrible and I quit taking the Anastrozole, since it had crippled me. I had my first post operative mammogram on Oct. 3, 2022 and it was only the second in-person meeting that my oncologist had managed to make. (Mostly his "minions" saw me and sent me responses to my repeated requests, as suggested by my surgeon, that my oncologist---who had refused to order an oncotype saying, "You don't need one"---order me a ki67 test to help with my apprehension about a recurrence. I had no % or data because this doctor did not believe in ordering anything expensive or extra and I did not, therefore, have the advantage of an onco score in planning my treatment. Therefore, no chemo. I spent 17 months asking repeatedly for my oncologist to order an ki67, since the onco ship had already sailed. Every time I would ask through the patient portal I would be given the run-around by "the minions" who kept insisting that I needed to speak to the oncologist face-to-face, but he never met with me but once. The second time was that post-operative mammogram appointment, when I asked Dr. Constantinou for the ki67 and he said, "I won't order that for you. You'll have to get someone else." We winter in Austin (Tx), so I did, finally, in 2023. My current oncologist got me the oncotype I had asked about in 2021. It was 2023. My score was 29 and my tumor was 95% estrogen positive (11 mm., good margins). The technician who ran the mammogram, after seeing that I had to be wheeled to it in a wheelchair, asked me what had happened and I told her that I had been in the MOST clinical trial for bad osteoarthritis from its inception until 2020, or 20 years. Yet, he put me on an A.I. pill that absolutely put me in hell and crippled me. Thanks to my Texas oncologist, I now know that my onco score would have merited chemo, and he also said that I would have had 3 bouts of it if I had been his patient at the outset. He talked me into trying Tamoxifen, which I took for 5 months from April 23, 2023 until Aug. 30, 2023. On Tamoxifen I could only be awake for 3 hours of a day and had non-stop UTIs, which were treated with both amoxicillin (which did nothing) and Nitrofurantoin. They gave me a fungal infection, which also was treated with a strong pill. Now I have elevated liver enzymes from something I was given to "protect" me from cancer, no doubt. I flew to Texas for treatment and I am hoping that the 33 radiation treatments I had will protect me from a recurrence of cancer, but it's been a long hard road and I would start with Exemestane, rather than either Anastrozole or Laetrozole, but I am not going to take any of these toxic substances . The pain from the Anastrozole was off the charts and nobody but me cared or even spoke with me about it. The Illinois doctor---who was awful (the technician told me a few more horror stories about his other patients, and I've heard plenty now---is retiring soon, and not a moment too soon. Three of my former employees, hearing the name of my oncologist, said, "He killed our mother" and the stories just keep coming. Anybody with damaged joints or osteoarthritis is going to be in a world of hurt if given any of the A.I. pills, and I most certainly was a very poor candidate for them. I already had Type II diabetes, but my bone density went from -1.4T to -2.2T while on Anastrozole, where -2.5T is osteoporosis.

I was on Anastrozole for 2 years and I’m now on exemestane for the ladt year but the damage was done by Anastrozole. The pain in my back is dreadful and like in your situation, my
Oncologist said, when asked, by my gp surgery, to change me to Exemestane, his reply was ‘I don’t see the point in changing her meds cos exemestane will have same effect on her’. That was the end of him as far as I’m concerned. Breast cancer nurse got the prescription changed fit me last July 2023. Keep fighting 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

I have taken Anastrozole for 10 years and am told I will take it the rest of my life. I have had no serious side effects from the medication. I can’t say I feel great (I don’t know if that’s from the medication or not) but I can pretty much do anything I want. I have stage 4 breast cancer Mets bones but have been NED for 9.5 years. I will gladly take it from now on if it keeps the cancer away.