ADT, Hot Flashes and Ashwagandha: Is it safe?

@brianjarvis
Wow! That's a lot of data to digest right now, so I'll reply again later. Just want to say thank you for your time posting this.

@slowdo Beware of this highly touted herb in higher doses!! I was eating ATLAS protein bars for lunch and a routine blood test showed a jump in my liver enzymes; after eliminating all possible suspects I did a deep dive on ashwagandha.
There are numerous cases of severe liver damage - and one reported death- from the daily use of this herb in amounts exceeding 300 mgs.
I contacted the company and shared my concerns and the founder/CEO himself got back to me; he actually refunded my $$ via Amazon but said they would continue to use it in their formulation.
A year later they changed the packaging and instead of boldly displaying “300 mgs ashwagandha” on the wrapper they simply included it in the ingredients with NO mention of the amount…sneaky bastards!!!
Phil

@bryanta
How long do night sweats and headaches continue. My last 3-month shot was 4 months ago and i am still having serious side effects. I quit Lupron at 4 months and felt like it would have killed me if I continued.

@pesquallie I have read that effects of lupron can last for as long as you've been
given the injections. (thats 2 years for me) off in September.
Am taking gabapentin and black cohosh at bed time.,which seems to relieve symptoms .
Am sorry for your suffering. Am having extreme fatigue, headaches, balance issues and depression.

@pesquallie
Not sure how many shots you’ve had, I know that somebody who’s had six months of Lupron can have their testosterone come up enough within about nine months to stop the problems.

The story about it takes as long to go away as you were on it is not true. I was on Lupon for six years and Orgovyx For a year when I stopped taking it for eight months. My testosterone started coming back pretty quickly so I had to go back on it. That’s nowhere close to the seven years I was on ADT total. I was 77 at the time and my oncologist and I both figured it would never come back.

@pesquallie I’ve been off Lupron for 14 months and still have hot flashes, emotional lability, bone loss, anxiety and depression. My testosterone has only returned to 100 so far. (I was on Lupron for 3 years). Several years ago I was on Lupron for 6 months and my testosterone was 400 after 3 months. The good news about being off Lupron is that my blood pressure, blood sugar and red blood cell count have normalized.

@jimgaudette

Your comments are helpful. My testosterone was already very low and had never been high (200 to 300 range) before Lupron. For me the Lupron was overkill as my testosterone dropped to about 7 and after 4 months has recovered to about nine. I believe that Lupron should not be prescribed at the same level for every man. Smaller and older men plus those whose testosterone level is already low should be given a smaller dose. One size does not fit all, and you would think that the so-called geniuses of the medical field would know better. Too big a dose very likely causes more severe side effects like I am having 7 months after my last 3 month shot.

@pesquallie
A smaller dose would allow testosterone to be higher, but it would still get low enough to cause side effects. Don’t think it would help much in the long run.

After five years of following many online meetings every month, I’ve never heard of someone having a lower dose of Lupron.

Your side effects are due to the fact that it’s taking a while for your testosterone to come back. Usually, it comes back pretty good after 9 to 12 months. Have you had your testosterone level checked? You could always get testosterone injections, though you need to speak to your doctor about that since it can cause the cancer to come back more quickly.

It’s true that some people take a lot longer for it to come back, and for some, it doesn’t come back at all.

@jeffmarc

When your testosterone is essentially zero after a standard Lupron dose and for seven months thereafter then there would seem to be a high probability that you were overdosed. My urologist agreed that for me the standard dose may have been too much, but he would not give me a testosterone booster shot. My side effects were life threatening with a standard dose. I have also read that the majority of men will never get back to a normal testosterone level and will never stop having side effects. Everything I read suggests that the standard Lupron dose is too high for many men. There needs to be a study that determines who should get a lower dose.

@pesquallie
The studies have shown that men don’t get back to the same testosterone level they were at before not that they don’t get back to a normal testosterone level. I’ve heard of a lot of people stopping Lupron and only a few that ever said they didn’t ever get back to a normal level. Attend an ancan.org Weekly advanced prostate cancer meeting and find out more, But you will find out most men do get most of their testosterone back.

People and Orgovyx get it back much quicker, I’ve heard at least a couple people say their testosterone came back in a few months.

There is no standard lower dose of Lupron. They have one month, three months, four month and six month shots. The drug is absorbed into the body over that time and dissipates right after that amount of time passes. If you were to get a lower amount of Lupron, it would just be absorbed quicker.

You could instead take Orgovyx and not take the pill every day. It does have a 25 hour half-life. It would still drop your testosterone quite low.