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Did you gain weight on Tamoxifen? What helps?

Breast Cancer | Last Active: Jan 10 6:23pm | Replies (50)

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@sheilaelaine

Every single woman I know who is on Tamoxifen is unrecognizable from their former selves, me included.

I weighed 120 pounds my entire life. I weigh 180 pounds.

Exercise, restricted calories, fasting etc etc are just bad advice that puts the onus on the patient, dismisses the real agony of uncontrollable weight gain, are entirely ineffective, and let's health care providers off the hook.

I think that the medical community needs to take this seriously and stop making assumptions about the habits of the tamoxifen user. It is insulting. I went through all of the calorie counting and restrictive diets and exercise and etc. I actually had a health care provider tell me one week that the reason it wasn't working was because I cooked my vegetables and I should eat them raw. Two weeks later the same woman told me that I should be cooking them .

When are health care providers going to listen? It is the drug that is causing the problem, not the patient. I think the only reason that there are no good studies on this is because if women knew what this drug does to you, no one would take it, and there are no good alternatives right now....How about a little more honestly and less nonsense?

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Replies to "Every single woman I know who is on Tamoxifen is unrecognizable from their former selves, me..."

Although I agree with more honesty and less nonsense. I would also add back into the conversation. “Cancer” with a big C, because when we are railing against our medicine ( I do it too ) we need to remember this is the monster we are fighting.
I don’t disagree that there will be some hardship and some things are harder than others. If weight gain is absolutely something you cannot abide then please talk to your doctor about trying a different endocrine therapy. Please don’t give this monster another shot at you without a conversation with your doctor.💕
How long have you been on Tamoxifen?

I took Tamoxifen about 2 months, then I developed hot flashes, sweats day and night, swelling of the eyes, leg and foot cramps, etc.. I decided to stop Tamoxifen about three weeks ago, my side effects are still persistent now. I should not follow my onco's suggestion, she convinced me with lowest dosage 5mg per day, and stop any time when I feel side effects. Now I have to wait to see how long the side effects will go away.