Has anyone on letrozole experienced extreme fatigue?

@wews I take my letrozole at 9:00 PM every night. I added an alarm to my phone. I do not experience the tiredness that you all are mentioning.

@wews
Joint pain comes with about all of these AIs.
For me Letrozole was the worst. After about 3 months,
I switched to Exemestane. For me, no more joint pain.

You might consider getting a small rebounder.
1) exercise
2) move lymphatic fluid

Daily redlight therapy may help, too.

IF, IF your cancer does not feed on progesterone, I highly recommend researching natural yam cream (priority) and progesterone cream.
These can naturally balance out the estrogen.
Research Dr John Lee on how progesterone cream can help offset, reverse, and improve osteoporosis and osteopenia as well.

@ebtexas55 thanks so much for all your suggestions. I do a lot of exercise and yoga and stretching. I just ordered a red light pad and will try it. But I will speak to my oncologist about switching and see what happens. I was HR positive which I think is both estrogen and progesterone positive so that might not work for me! I really appreciate your insight.

@wews
Youre doing well to do yoga and continuing should help.
I just mentioning to my husband I should look into it or that bunging flying!
Best to you!

@buckokey
I have only been on letraxole for 7 weeks but am exhausted, useless, and stunned! I fall asleep the moment I sit down down( except at night unfortunately ).I try to get out for 30 minute walk each day. It helps a little with my mood which is poor. I have had a dx of fibro since 2013 but I could roll with it and partially ignore it. Now I can barely function. I haven't completed all the necessary surgery -- there have been delasy, wait times and and then discovery of axillary nodes. So I won't try a break from letrazole until all the cancer has been removed. ( "Very " ER positive ). I hope that a break from AI will help clarify what's going on. When you have multiple chronic conditions everything blends into everything else to the point you can't really tell what is going on and what you can do ( if you have any energy to DO anything...) to improve the situation .
Thanks for listening. Nice not to feel alone.

@judithgrossman I totally relate to your feelings of exhaustion and uselessness. Let alone many other things. Do you have any support from family or friends? That can help relieve some of your stress and anxiety. Truly, though, please contact your oncologist and ask to be switched from letrozole to (possibly) anastrozole or tamoxifen. It truly made a huge difference and the extreme tiredness I felt daily stopped. Since my last posts I’ve experienced severe knee pain and must have knee replacement. But the doctors are hashing out which I should do first. I have now had BC surgery cancelled three times! Oncologist assures me that surgery can be delayed several months if needed as my tumor has shrunk significantly and there is no concern about it being problematic by waiting longer. Orthopedic surgeon wants me to get some pt, and use the leg so that it’s stronger and I can be more mobile, then get BC Surgery, recover and then knee replacement. There’s fear of blood clots if I am immobile after BC surgery and they want me to be able to walk. So in the meantime I wait impatiently and feel frustrated! I hope you get off the letrozole as it didn’t take but a couple weeks to notice a huge difference for me. I went off letrozole for a week then switched. Keep us posted and will be anxious for your doctor’s opinion. And for your improved health!

@buckokey
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I haven't ruled out a break from letrazole and a possible switch to an alternate AI. I would prefer to do it after the last ( hopefuly) surgery to remove cancer (three weeks away) . Take care of yourself. Thanks for responding.

Have not been on letrozole (yet). Say “yet” because it’s the next consideration. Initially Anastrazole and did develop the nasty bone/joint pain. While there was generalized tolerable back and hip aches, the pain was stabbing and moved around. At times bad enough that I had to take something or be immobile for the day(or both). Also elevated cholesterol levels and osteopenia. Switched to exemestane and while still a little achy in hips and back, no additional pain. Osteopenia controlled, last dexa was normal, cholesterol back to normal. Main side effects with this are extreme fatigue, weakness and insomnia. The fatigue started first at about 4 months, insomnia 3 months later. So now I require a short rest late afternoon every day (can’t sleep, just lay down and try to relax) and usually average 4 hrs sleep a night. The “weakness” could just be a factor of all this but I just can’t do what is was able to do a year ago. He’s talking about letrozole now but I’ve declined because it seems to be the worst of the bunch. Also considering asking if I can just stop it because not really sure I consider this quality of life and feel it’s aging me exponentially. But concerns because tumor markers won’t go to normal and will periodically spike back to where they were before surgery. So there are side effects to all these and different for everyone with some having none at all.

mistymar It is amazing to me that we all suffer with these side effects. I think it this drug starts to e the quality of my life to a point where I cant function I might also decide to stop it. I am 71 and I want to live a full life but I want it to be with joy and movement. I am going to die from something and they told me there is a 8% chance the cancer would come back even if I take Letrezole. That means there is a 92% chance it won't come back if I take it. But I had stage 1A invasive lobular cancer and it was not in my lymph nodes and the surgeon got clean margins so surgically there is only a 2% chance it would come back. I guess it is all a crap shoot and we ladies have to do what our gut tells us to do. I hope you find an answer - I will discuss with my oncologist if it makes sense to switch or try to hang in there. I think Letrezole is the drug of choice of ILC.

@judithgrossman I hope your body adjusts to it a bit - I was told we had to give it some time and I will say I have days where symptoms aren't as bad and then days when everything hurts and I have hot flashes. I will say the more active I am the better I feel and the more I eat a healthy clean diet the better I feel so in addition to breathing and stretching and meditating and lifting weights and doing yoga and walking I do better. When I have days of not doing those things at all, I feel worse. I think the pains are worse in joints where I already have arthritis or stiffness. I just try - but I too am willing to change if my oncologist thinks it is worth a try. I just dont want to start all over again getting used to a new medication.