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Has anyone on letrozole experienced extreme fatigue?

Breast Cancer | Last Active: Apr 24 7:36am | Replies (27)

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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.

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Replies to "Have not been on letrozole (yet). Say “yet” because it’s the next consideration. Initially Anastrazole and..."

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.