Concerned about the side effects of anastrozole

I have been on arimidex for 2 months now. Everyone is different when it comes to side effects. So far I have been pretty lucky in that except for nausea the first week I took the medicine I haven't had any real side effects. I do try and keep myself active to help keep any joint or muscle pain at bay. So you might not any side effects. I wish you the best of luck. I still have surgery and radiatonic ahead of me.

I use tumeric and notice a lot less joint pain, once a morning.

@azlane
When it gets really bad, I'll take it also in the evening.

What dosage of Turmeric are you taking daily?

@francine6829
900 mg

I'll check, I'm on vacation so I don't have the bottle.

Well @tinalove, hopefully you are hanging in with your treatment. I have been on Anastrozole for a little over 2 years. The first 2-3 months were brutal, but then things seemed to get a bit better, so I would encourage anyone who's newly on this drug to stick it out for at least a few months. Over time I have experienced many side effects including joint pain, hot flashes and night sweats, depression and anxiety, vaginal dryness, frequent cystitis, and in the past few months my hair has started thinning significantly. I understand the joint pain can be excruciating for some women; for me it has been manageable. The cystitis is another story; really disruptive for me and I never see anyone else writing about it. The hair thinning has also been pretty distressing. I was ready to call that the last straw and quit the meds, but I just started using Rogaine and am going to give that a few months and see if it helps. My oncologist has been fantastic and done everything possible to help, but not a day goes by that I don't think about quitting this medicine. I just know it is giving me the best odds, so for now I'm going to keep taking it. Re: hair thinning - if anyone out there has finished their AIs and experienced a reversal/improvement in hair thinning, I would love to hear from you. Peace out everyone.

I too have been on anastrozole for 2 1/2 years. It is very tolerable, although I have the side effects you describe (minus the cystitis). Besides wrinkles (I aged ten years by the third month I had been taking it) my thin hair is most distressing. I finally had it cut into a pixie style, but it is thin and fine, hardly grows, and just “sticks to my head”. Biotin didn’t help. I am actually considering wearing a wig all the time— and I hate wigs; they remind me of chemo.
I would also be interested to hear if the hair situation rebounds after the anastrozole therapy is discontinued. Also, please post if you think the Rogaine is helping you. Thanks!
(In looking at my profile pic, you’d think I had a lot of hair. But this pic was taken just a couple of months after I had started the anastrozole. It actually was a little thicker, although it never bounced back to pre-chemo status.)

Charisma- have you considered switching to another AI or Tomoxifen ?

My doc vetoed tamoxifen because she said the chance for blood clots was too great. (I’ve had a hysterectomy so the possibility of uterine cancer is nil.) I have not asked about another type of AI because these side effects seemed quite tolerable, and also because I don’t have a good rapport with my onc and don’t really desire to interact with her more than absolutely necessary 🙄.