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Timing of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) - taking day or night?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: 17 hours ago | Replies (97)Comment receiving replies
@mistymar
I saw my oncologist last week and have decided to stay on anastrozole because I am high risk. After my recent break I switched to taking it at bedtime instead of mornings. I only feel marginally better off the drug. That helps with the nausea.
It may help if you review your risk of recurrence vs any actual harm the side effects may cause. You’re an individual not a statistic.
It’s a shame that no studies follow up with patients about real life side effects.
I worked on editing drug inserts for a medical publisher and am very familiar with the long lists of side effects for drugs. Doctors only talk about the most common ones. And they dismiss everything else. If a side effect is lower on the list, in the single digits, doctors decide it’s too rare for anyone to experience. That attitude is just lazy.
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@dmr4ever appreciate your response. I am a medical professional and therefore fully understand those “rare” side effects. Reading a PDR makes you not even want to take an aspirin! I’ve tried to review the risk of being off but that’s difficult because most of the time they don’t fit the circumstances. I’ve been to 1 site that said my risk on/off the medication was <1% difference and that I shouldn’t have even done chemo or radiation (too late!). But they only look at staging. Not at the Ki67 or oncotype. Another said they couldn’t give me any numbers because I’d already had chemo. Yet another said it was only to determine if I should continue ai past 5 years. So I am, I think like a lot of us, following the recommendations of our oncologist who will almost always err on the side of caution (ie - standard of care). And also that unrelenting fear that “if I stop the medication I may feel better but could that make the tumor come back so I should just stay on the medication or maybe shorter lifespan but better quality but then would I have to go through all this again if it comes back and would I or should I just stop, live my life and if it comes back accept I’ve lived long enough, or just stay on the meds and hope that there won’t be much damage, it’s only 5 years or should I ………….” that constantly sit in the back of my overactive brain. Ah well, we are surviving and I think a lot of it is these forums that open up the “we are not alone” and the “no, your not crazy” dialogues. Thanks to all who participate and help keep us sane and let us open up to someone who will listen and sympathize.