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Concerned about the side effects of anastrozole
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Apr 27 1:15pm | Replies (1931)Comment receiving replies
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.
Replies to "I started on Anestrozole in December of 2019 after my last breast cancer treatment. In late..."
When my hands hurt so much on anastrozole - my oncologist sent me to a Rheumatologist to make sure it was not something else causing the pain. There was not. I switched to Exemestane & it took like 3 months for my hands to stop hurting. So it takes longer than 2 weeks to get that anastrozole out of your system. My pain is only about 0 or 1 these days. Before it was a 7. My hair thinned but never felt out. I did not take chemo. Have you tried Rogaine? My oncologist told me to try it. When I was trying to grow my hair long (years ago) I used pre-natal vitamins that my hair dresser recommended,. I swear it worked - or maybe it was a placebo! 🙂
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@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.