Concerned about the side effects of anastrozole

I’m able to maintain my weight on Anastrozole. How does Exemestane effect appetite and weight gain?

@samanthavon
My weight has been fine on exemestane - haven't felt extra hungry. Recently, I've gained a little but am in northern California and cannot go outside due to high particulates in air from all the fires as it would impact my lung disease so have not been able to go walking daily for about 5 days now (I usually walk 2-3.5 miles per day) as my exercise.

Yeah - I did not notice any effect on appetite. I'm actively trying to ;lose weight and have lost almost 20 pounds in the last 12 months. With Covid - I'm struggling to keep that off right now. The YMCA is where I went - My doctor told me not to return there yet even though they re-opened. I read the book The Obesity Code - and I'm trying to follow that as diabetes runs in my family. Eat "real" food, not processed foods, less sugar and refined wheat.

I started on Anestrozole in December of 2019 after my last breast cancer treatment. In late January I started to get muscle and bone aches so bad that I could hardly walk. I had a follow up appointment with my radiologist and mentioned it to her and she suggested that it might be the Anestrozole. I called my oncologist and he suggested I stop taking Anestrozole for two weeks to see if that helped. It didn't! The oncologist suggested that I see my regular GP who took blood work and s aid that I was just anemic. He sent me to a neurologist who did additional blood work and found out I had Polymyalgia Rheumatica, an auto-immune disorder. He sent me to a Rheumatologist. By now, this was April so I spent 4 months in pain. The day the rheumatologist put me on
10 mgs of Prednisone the pain stopped in it's tract. We still don't know the cause and I have flare-ups where I have to again increase the Prednisone. I don't know if the Anestrozoe caused these symptoms or if they came from somewhere else (some say stress as we have had a rough year with both my husband's health and mine). I started back on Anestrozole after the two week hiatus and the only problem I am presently having apart from PMR is hair loss. I lost all my hair during chemo for breast cancer but it came back thick and curly, only to go straight and limp a few months later. Now I seem to be losing more and more of it with patches in my scalp without hair. I have tried all the Keratin sprays and Keranique shampoos but nothing helps. Any suggestions would be appreciated if you have found a way to strengthen and help growth of hair.

@ncgal
For me personally, the anastrozole made it so I could barely walk -- between my ankles, feet, back, wrists, and hands it was horrendous. I was next placed on letrozole for which the pains was not quite as bad but gave me migraine headaches. Following that I was placed on exemestane and that had been much, much better. For the hair I read articles on Mayo about women taking biotin for my thinning hair and believe that has helped somewhat. Best of luck to you.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am glad that you are not in the same amount of pain. I take Anastrazole and have side effects of joint pain and hot flashes. These became worse after getting an infusion of Zometa. One of the side effects of Anastrazole is weakening of bone. I decided to take this infusion once every six months to help build stronger bones and reduce fractures by 40-70%. Good luck to you during this trying time.

@dmgweiss
With any of the aromatase inhibitors, you won't be able to avoid the hot flashes or heat bombs as they are trying to reduce the estrogen in the body. I do the Zometa every 6 months as well and am down for about a week after then from my reaction...ugh. Living in Sonoma County (northern California) and we are having fires sweep through again. Both my kids lost their homes in the Tubbs fire 2 years ago and are just now in their homes. Between fires in Napa and Sonoma counties, please everyone pray for firefighters, pilots of planes and helicopters, dozer people, livestock, wildlife, and humans.

Hi Trixie, I 'm so sorry you and your family are having to endure this again. We live near Concord and have all of our windows closed due to the smoke from those fires. I hope everything will be all right for you this time, and for your kids. Sending love...

I am in Walnut Creek. I hope the fires get contained quickly where you are. We are getting more smoke, but that is nothing compared to being in an active fire area. I send love and prayers to you and your family.
Thanks for reframing ‘heat bombs’ for me!

@sparklegram @dmgweiss
Thank you all for your kind thoughts...this is just crazy. Bad enough we get cancer, but this on top of everything else is nerve racking.