Afraid to take Tamoxifen
I just picked up my first bottle of Tamoxifen. I am so afraid to take this medication but due to bad osteoporosis it seems to be my only choice. How have others handled this fear… I’m 77 and debating if risk is worth taking
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Google it.
Well, if you decide you want to, you can start taking it. You can always stop, it can some effects on other parts of your body but as far as I know they’re all reversible. I found the first two weeks I had some mild side effects. It took 3 months to get the full effect. At that point I started talking with the doctors, and my dose was lowered.
Hello @kj252 although I am sure google could add to your fears for you, I would love to de-escalate your worry.
I admit to being curious why they chose tamoxifen for you, I don’t know all of the details of protocol but I usually hear tamoxifen being prescribed for premenopausal women. I took it for the first five years if my endocrine therapy.
I didn’t lose a lot of bone density from tamoxifen, I did start to lose it a few years later while on anastrazole. The doctors have told me that walking is the best thing to prevent bone loss, bearing your own weight on a daily walk. This also kept the joint and muscle stiffness away from the tamoxifen. I found that during any endocrine therapies walking was the key to comfort.
I did have some side effects, the previously mentioned stiffness and most significantly the hot flashes from the forced menopause. This could have been from the ovary removal, but the combination left me feeling overheated.🥵
If I could avoid getting more cancer or more chemo by trying tamoxifen, I would give it a try, worst case scenario, if you can’t tolerate it, you can always talk to your doctor about stopping.
Is this the only endocrine therapy you have tried?