Aromatase Inhibitors: Did you decide to go on them or not?

I actually lost the weight I had gained on tamoxifen. Then I had an accident and gained it back, now I am working on getting off again. I put drawstrings in all of my skirts because over the last 17 years I gained and lost hundreds of pounds from treatments. For me the reality of knowing this thing would have killed me 17 years ago or somewhere in between without all these advances is a scary thing. I would have missed sooooo much.

I found myself acting very emotionally erratic after about 2 weeks of taking just half the prescribed dose of Raloxifine. I'm usually a happy person. I realized that this was how i felt when i started mesopause and found myself sobbing because my daughter hadn't cleaned her room. I knew that was nuts. I was put on estrogen then and i was fine as I could be through my husbands' Parkinsons, dementia, death and then my cancer. I need some estrogen. Life isn't good without it. I'm stopping the Raloxifine today and will talk to my oncologist about it next week when i go for chemo.

I totally hear you !! That’s exactly how I feel !! Like a 100 year old pregnant woman !!
I am trying to cut out all animal fat and or anything that could promote estrogen in my body & take the natural stuff I mentioned. None of us want to go thru this ever again but really when our quality of life is severely
affected ………..

Thank you ! I do need to be gentle with myself ! Thanks for the reminder and support. Hopefully Arimidex will be tolerable
By the way , did arimidex cause weight gain for you ? Tamoxifen did for me 8 lbs and stomach was very bloated and painful

In the past I was on three different kinds of AI. I felt like I was a 100 years old I could barely get out of a chair. So I decided not to take them. I decided I couldn’t go through the next 5 years of my life living with all these aches etc.

I am on DIM and oncoplex , I was on tamoxifen for 9 mos and got every horrible side effect so Dr took me off of it 10/13 , I still feel horrible !!! A couple of weeks after my final reconstruction, which is next week , she wants to try Arimidex, she was worried about giving me this one to begin with because of the joint pains it causes & she was worried it would affect my career (massage therapist). I for sure don’t want a recurrence but it’s also about quality of life. I couldn’t imagine 4/12 more years of such horror
I am praying my body tolerates arimidex

Maybe all of he above. Chemo and or radiation take a lot out of your body. This includes ways that you can’t see, so I would say be gentle with yourself about this. I did have the wicked hot flashes and some achiness on tamoxifen, but I could tolerate it. I walked out most of the achiness from arimidex (anastrazole), again there was some side effects but doable.

Hi thanks for the reply. I do that and more (I’m a personal trainer ) & it doesn’t help. I worked out all thru chemo (24 rounds ) & didn’t feel 1/4 as horrible as tamoxifen made me feel , it’s the debilitating fatigue and bloating & the depression that’s still has me down and out And no I’m not taking an antidepressant to deal with tamoxifen. I am now almost 4 weeks without it and Dr wants to see how I do without it for at least 8 weeks. To make sure it’s the tamoxifen that has me like this or my body is just not recovering from treatment as fast ? Chemo ended 6/16. Then lat flap 7/20
I am praying my body renews itself