Aromatase Inhibitors: Did you decide to go on them or not?

Hi thanks for the reply. I do that and more (I’m a personal trainer ) & it doesn’t help. I worked out all thru chemo (24 rounds ) & didn’t feel 1/4 as horrible as tamoxifen made me feel , it’s the debilitating fatigue and bloating & the depression that’s still has me down and out And no I’m not taking an antidepressant to deal with tamoxifen. I am now almost 4 weeks without it and Dr wants to see how I do without it for at least 8 weeks. To make sure it’s the tamoxifen that has me like this or my body is just not recovering from treatment as fast ? Chemo ended 6/16. Then lat flap 7/20
I am praying my body renews itself

I started a lower dose tamoxifen three weeks ago, taking 5 - 10mg daily. Bloating and vaginal discharge have become new SEs for me. They are tolerable to avoid recurrence, but I worry about endometrial thickening and cancer. I am not sure what to do and will talk it over with my oncologist at our next meeting. I do not want to take an AI because of bone and cardiac health issues. Raloxifene, another SERM but without endometrial problems, is only approved for prevention. DIM, or other natural alternatives, sounds great but its true effectiveness is unknown. Apparently there may be a new DNA testing process to determine whether early stage estrogen positive cancer patients need endocrine adjuvant therapy. Anybody heard of this?

Sorry I was referring to Femara, not Tamoxifen. And I did not have chemo or reconstruction so my body had less to deal with.

Hi, I am taking Anastrozole for 2 yrs so far. I was doing ok I thought, as I listen to my body, & try not to buy into the side effects. I didn’t even read about them for the longest time. Just about 3-4 months ago, I started having such achyness that I felt older than my years. I had a hip pain bad mouth doctor took X-rays just to make sure. Mid October I stopped the Anastrozole as my quality of life was being affected & I wanted to see if the med was causing. It’s been 3 weeks & I feel so much better. In all fairness to med - I’m thinking the hip pain ‘May’ be from a disc issue that I’m having. 🤷‍♀️
I see my oncologist end of November- so we will see what he has to say.

Maybe all of he above. Chemo and or radiation take a lot out of your body. This includes ways that you can’t see, so I would say be gentle with yourself about this. I did have the wicked hot flashes and some achiness on tamoxifen, but I could tolerate it. I walked out most of the achiness from arimidex (anastrazole), again there was some side effects but doable.

Thank you ! I do need to be gentle with myself ! Thanks for the reminder and support. Hopefully Arimidex will be tolerable
By the way , did arimidex cause weight gain for you ? Tamoxifen did for me 8 lbs and stomach was very bloated and painful

In the past I was on three different kinds of AI. I felt like I was a 100 years old I could barely get out of a chair. So I decided not to take them. I decided I couldn’t go through the next 5 years of my life living with all these aches etc.

I totally hear you !! That’s exactly how I feel !! Like a 100 year old pregnant woman !!
I am trying to cut out all animal fat and or anything that could promote estrogen in my body & take the natural stuff I mentioned. None of us want to go thru this ever again but really when our quality of life is severely
affected ………..

I found myself acting very emotionally erratic after about 2 weeks of taking just half the prescribed dose of Raloxifine. I'm usually a happy person. I realized that this was how i felt when i started mesopause and found myself sobbing because my daughter hadn't cleaned her room. I knew that was nuts. I was put on estrogen then and i was fine as I could be through my husbands' Parkinsons, dementia, death and then my cancer. I need some estrogen. Life isn't good without it. I'm stopping the Raloxifine today and will talk to my oncologist about it next week when i go for chemo.

I actually lost the weight I had gained on tamoxifen. Then I had an accident and gained it back, now I am working on getting off again. I put drawstrings in all of my skirts because over the last 17 years I gained and lost hundreds of pounds from treatments. For me the reality of knowing this thing would have killed me 17 years ago or somewhere in between without all these advances is a scary thing. I would have missed sooooo much.