Concerned about the side effects of anastrozole

@sparklegram
Sparkle, thanks for your response. Isn't it a tough one?! One would think with all the smart people that they could come up with something a bit easier on the body! I'm 67, just retired when I found the lump last year, but that's been the story of my life, so my motto is just keep one step in front of the other. Hoping for the best for all of us.

Trixie, I'm sorry to hear about all of these issues you've had to deal with. Please do let us know how you respond to your next bout with an AI. It's all so confusing. I'm 74 and it's difficult to discern what is being caused by age or the AI. All I know is I never felt this fatique and weakness before I began taking Arimidex. Of course, I won't stop taking the meds because I don't want a recurrence of cancer.

I've been on anastrozole for about 6 months now. I'm only taking 1,000 U of D3 oil. I will try your dosage. My doctor said EXERCISE, Exercise & Exercise! Of course I do not feel like exercise but have been trying and - it really does make me feel better! The YMCA has a program called Livestrong, a free 12 week program for cancer survivors. It is worth looking into if you have a Y nearby. I have arthritis in my knees, so it was hard to tell if the pain was from that or from the drug. I'm going to try to keep up the exercise & my best wishes for you. Yeah - 5 years seems like a long time (I'm 63) and 10 years seems like forever. I'm at least going to try for the 5 years. 🙂

I was on anastrozole (Arimidex) for about a month and had headaches 25 days and then none for 5 days. Then....Boom...horrendous headaches, nausea, sweats,, fevers, extreme weakness, etc. but found out that it was from a bacterial infection and diverticulitis. My oncologist has told me to go off of anastrozole for 2 weeks and we'll talk again then. I probably had the infection for about 2 weeks before seeing my doctor while blaming the anastrozole for all the side effects! Now that I'm off of it, I've noticed more bone and joint pain and sweats which I think must be withdrawal from it. The joint pain I had from the AI had been managed by 5,000 U of vitamin D3. So I guess I'll find out what's really what once I get put back on whatever it is I have to go on.

I was on anastrozole (Arimidex) for about a month and had headaches 25 days and then none for 5 days. Then....Boom...horrendous headaches, nausea, sweats,, fevers, extreme weakness, etc. but found out that it was from a bacterial infection and diverticulitis. My oncologist has told me to go off of anastrozole for 2 weeks and we'll talk again then. I probably had the infection for about 2 weeks before seeing my doctor while blaming the anastrozole for all the side effects! Now that I'm off of it, I've noticed more bone and joint pain and sweats which I think must be withdrawal from it. The joint pain I had from the AI had been managed by 5,000 U of vitamin D3. So I guess I'll find out what's really what once I get put back on whatever it is I have to go on.

@francine6829 - I've read online about the comparative side effects of Arimidex, Letrozole and Tamoxifen, and it seems to me they are almost identical. I don't know about Aromosin.

I was on Femura/Letrozole for 6 weeks and had all the symptoms your described for Arimidex. Horrible. My oncologist told me to take a break for 2 weeks, which I did. I am now on Aromosin for 3 weeks and the jury is still out. Have some aches, but I think the worse kicks in about 5-6 weeks. I would love to try Tomoxifen but my Oncologist wanted me to try Aromosin first.

@gwinter- This is interesting to me, too. I just did a two week trial of going off Arimidex for 2 weeks. I started back on it today. I have been taking it for 14 months with all the side effects we've been reading about on this post. I wanted to see if it was responsible for unbearable leg and knee pain I was having, or if that was being caused by my spinal stenosis. The leg pain did go away after about a week off of Arimidex. I'm waiting to see if it comes back now that I'm back on it To be continued...

Feeling some aches but not as bad as Femura. It’s only been a week tho. I am taking Tumeric