Men with breast cancer: Your experience wth hormonal therapy?

Posted by dick61 @dick61, Aug 28, 2022

I had a mastectomy and 3 positive lymph nodes and 16 proton radiation treatments at MN Mayo. I am taking 20 mg of tamoxifen. What side effects are MALES experiencing from this drug??

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Breast Cancer Support Group.

cstark46 | @cstark46 | Sep 24, 2022

Leuprolide and Letrozole hormone therapy for men's breast cancer
I am a 76 year old male with early breast cancer. After surgery, I'm supposed to start the above mentioned therapy. I would like to know other patient's experience.

dick61 | @dick61 | Sep 6, 2022

In reply to @colleenyoung "@dick61, I'm glad you asked this question. Hormonal therapy for men with breast cancer is not..." + (show)

VERY frequent, stress-type (not migraine) headaches and early evening fatigue. I can take Esgic Plus to treat the headaches, and it is very effective. However, phenobarbital negatively affects the metabolism of tamoxifen. So, I only use it for the ones that are debilitating. The headaches cause somewhat fuzzy thinking, and the mild ones are annoying!

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Sep 5, 2022

@dick61, I'm glad you asked this question. Hormonal therapy for men with breast cancer is not the same experience as for women. Besides the helpful reply you got from @rpfricker, I'd also like to tag @robbiemilammusicman @wolfbauer and @agingrobert into this discussion about tamoxifen.

Dick, what side effects are you experiencing?

rpfricker | @rpfricker | Aug 29, 2022

I had a lumpectomy with no impacted sentinel lymph nodes followed by radiation almost six years ago then on Tamoxifen for five years (taken off it earlier this year). The biggest issue I had was joint and muscle aches particularly in the morning after a nights sleep. It was manageable but a bit nagging. Also experienced some decline in sex drive.
Best wishes on your journey.