Anastrazole and anxiety

I have been taking Anastrazole for 18 months. Lordy, the issues I have encountered with it! During the first 4 months I began to have irregular heart beats and my GP told me to STOP it for a few weeks. I then restarted it and that side effect has disappeared. Next I began attracting bees...and had 13 stings over 3 incidents resulting in hospital visits and lots of prednisone. Bees have basically ignored me my whole life! That with the Anastrazole caused serious constipation and that caused infectious diverticulitis, twice, needing broad spectrum antibiotics. Next I caught a upper respiratory that would not go away and since I am 74 with asthma, I was put on another antibiotic for precaution due to so many pneumonia cases.

Then I began to have bothersome reflux from the Anastrazole resulting in inflammation in my chest and hoarseness. After clearing my through too many times from the congestion, i have damaged my vocal cords on one side and may have to have PT or surgery to correct as it affects breathing. So now I am on Prilosec and Pepcid to manage the reflux. I read that Anastrazole can thin tissue and so the sphincter at the top of my stomach is not working well.
Anastrazole requires me to take Fosamax and that little jewel excerbates my stomach acid.
And I already had osteoporisis and now my bones are thinning in just 18 months.

I also now have leaky bladder and urgent needs to pee at times. And I have back aches, burning, tush bone aches and muscle cramps and feel jittery all the time. Sleep is not great, I get cranky, which is not my nature, fatigue...the list goes on. Issues with my eyesight.
Again, none of these have been issues prior to chemo, radiation, immunotherapy and now this magic pill.

I am taking another 3-4 week holiday now to see if these symptoms will subside. AI says 3-4 weeks will remedy some of these issues and 6-8 will definitely resolve most of the others, if they are from Anastrazole. I had none of these issues prior to taking the meds. I have been told by my oncologist to switch to Tamoxifen but it can thicken the uterine wall and mine is already that way due to hormones my Mom took during pregnancy. I had a lot of issues with endometriosis. So Tamoxifen can cause uterine cancer, as it cranks up the hormones in your female organs while slowing down the estrogen in the breast. My GP prefers me not to take tamoxifen.

AI suggests that I stop for a holiday, take Tamoxifen for 6 months =1 year, then try Anastrazole again and keep this up over the rest of the 3.6 years hoping to avoid such heavy loads of the meds and stopping many of the issues.
Many countries suggest taking Anastrazole for 2 years or every other day as the half life is about 50 hours. I am a smaller body type and really wonder if the 1mg may be just a bit too much for me. I also saw on a predict site and on AI that after all of the treatments I have taken, this magic pill might only give protect me another 1-2%. It is hard to know what is best to do. I think alternating and taking holidays may be a way for many of us to keep taking this drug.

The lack of Estrogen causes adverse mood effects — depression, anxiety irritability. It’s a bit disturbing that patients are given antidepressants and antipsychotics that alter neurotransmitters in the brain. Antidepressants also have side effects which can be harmful. They are not magic. And the knee-jerk response doctors have that leads them to prescribe more drugs is inappropriate. When the lack of estrogen causes anxiety or depression using drugs to alter serotonin, dopamine, etc. is like giving patients a cane when they need an aspirin. It’s nonsense.

What is more appropriate is to acknowledge that low estrogen naturally causes mood disorders. Help patients manage those symptoms and stop adding additional medications that often create an additional layer of risk - side effects, withdrawal, etc.

Doctors need to be honest with patients about how the human body does or does not function on specific medications. For example, if a medication has a 2% possibility of a negative side effect doctors say that side effect is too rare to happen. But if a drug shows a 2% statistic for a positive result doctors claim it is statistically significant. Assuming no one has any knowledge of statistics is purposely misleading. Doctors may not understand statistics. They automatically assume patients lack any knowledge of how statistics work. Most of us have had long careers and experience, education and knowledge of things doctors could never comprehend.

Don’t let a doctor use antidepressants to avoid being honest about how your brain functions without estrogen. Acknowledging the very real issues is the best way to help patients. Handing out pills that change brain chemistry without having any clue that the issue is the lack of estrogen is idiotic and dangerous for patients.

Therapy can help patients learn to manage anxiety and depression. AI induced mood disorders have no relation whatsoever to mental illness. No patient should feel shame for needing to learn how to manage the effects of no estrogen in their brain.

I'm 77 on Anastrozole 14 months with no noticeable side effects. Before cancer I was already on meds for osteoarthritis (Meloxicam), GERD ( Protonix), and anxiety (Xanax), and exercises and supplements for bone and joint health.

A bit scared....will be going on this drug as soon as I finish radiation....