1. < Breast Cancer
Profile picture for annedenner

Recovery time after Anastrozole/aromatase inhibitors

Posted by annedenner @annedenner, Sep 20, 2025

Greetings Everyone,
I took Anastrozole for one year. I had severe arch/foot and leg pain that did not improve. I’ve been off the AI four months with slight improvement in these symptoms. Can anyone share their “recovery” experiences from AIs. What side effects did you have, did side effects resolve and if so how long did it take? Thank you!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Breast Cancer Support Group.

Profile picture for momandrph048
momandrph048 | @momandrph048 | Dec 17, 2025
In reply to @megunique "This has been so helpful to read chats and experiences. I was diagnosed at 69 and..." + (show)
Profile picture for megunique @megunique

This has been so helpful to read chats and experiences. I was diagnosed at 69 and did 5 years on anastrazole. I am 1 month off the medication. I asked a lot of questions over those 5 years and learned a lot if this helps anyone. Yes symptoms can occur at any point and that is why my oncologist would ask at every appointment if any new side effects appeared. It is because this medication has somewhat of a cumulative effect. The longer you block estrogen the more it can impact you. I had initial muscles cramps but they went away. I think largely because I pushed myself to exercise and strength training. I had joint stiffness but thought it was from lifting weights. Now that I am off anastrazole for 1 month the stiffness is reduced. But I am far from full recovery. My most serious side effect was lack of sleep no matter what sleep aids I tried. I am slowly sleeping better but still have a lot of fatigue. I have a higher creatinine on the drug and while I maintained my weight ok for 4.5 years the last 5 months I gained weight despite a good diet, exercise and barely eating candy. The metabolic impact is frustrating and makes no sense to me.
I am told now that it can take 3-9 months for your body to recover. So I am trying to be grateful research and these meds have improved survival rates so significantly and that i am alive. I think in general not enough information is given about how women recover from hormone blocker. I could have prepared better mentally.

Jump to this post

@megunique
I was on it for the 5 years, and have now been off a little over 2 months.. some of the milder side effects have improved, but my joint and muscle pain has not.. I don’t even see an improvement yet. I was getting a little discouraged until I saw your post. If you’ve heard it can take 3-9 months, I still have some hope that it will get better.. as of now, I haven’t even seen an improvement..

REPLY
Profile picture for cat168
cat168 | @cat168 | Dec 18, 2025

I took it for 7 months. The worst side effects were cataracts, detached retina and the most annoying is carpal tunnel.
Has anyone had these side effects? Do they ever get better?

REPLY
Profile picture for shellseeker96
shellseeker96 | @shellseeker96 | 12 hours ago

Thank you for your post. I’ve read all the statements of AI patients so far on this subject, but I haven’t seen anyone stated anything about their eye health, other than dry eye. Cataracts sound like a an unusual side effect. However, I will say after five years on anastrozole I was feeling like I had fibromyalgia and yes, carpal tunnel as well. Heading to my oncologist today and will discuss many of the things I have read in this post. good luck to you as well.

REPLY
Profile picture for jwmusic65
jwmusic65 | @jwmusic65 | 7 hours ago

Hopefully your oncologist will respond with honesty. Sometimes I think they’re thin on information either because they don’t know or they realize that the intuitive sense of cancer overrides their research!

REPLY
Profile picture for barbbillas
barbbillas | @barbbillas | 4 hours ago

It took a year for all the foot and hand pain to go away. But I needed 2 trigger finger surgeries, and cortisone injections to both hands and one ankle. Pain was debilitating, was on Anastrozol, then Exemastane, just over a year in total. Also needed cortisone injection to my hip joint. Horrible drugs!

On Tamoxifen instead, no pain.

REPLY
View MoreView Less
Please sign in or register to post a reply.