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None of the women I know personally had significant side effects, and I found that walking more than 40 minutes greatly reduced joint pain. This is not to dismiss the experience of those who do have problems with the meds.
I think we need to keep in mind that risk of cancer recurrence may justify enduring a certain level of side effects. I fear that online forums tend toward the negative and may even contribute to the non-compliance statistics. I am 7 years out and grateful for Femara.
Replies to "None of the women I know personally had significant side effects, and I found that walking..."
I had breast cancer 30 years ago and had chemo.
I follow this group and I see that many women suffer side effects of some kind from current treatments. I also know that some people have low tolerance to many drugs- we are all genetically different.
I don’t know if the oncologists nowadays know how many patients are non compliant and that these patients may benefit from re- education of their medication’s role in avoiding recurrence of the cancer and see if there are other options if needed.
I agree that many women avoid telling their doctors that they stopped treatment.
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You are one of the lucky ones. This is the only forum I have found that allows freedom to speak about the debilitating side effects. If you are over 60 it seems to hit harder. I am thankful there are other options, and I value quality of life to quantity at my age. Glad it worked for you. I also walk every day for an hour, but couldnt walk at all on the drugs.