Lower dose tamoxifen
Milly21
Member Posts: 122 ✭
I have taken tamoxifen 20mg for 6 years,I have now had a year off tamoxifen as I stopped taking due to side effects, my oncologist would like me to persist and start taking it again as I’m in my 40s and he considers this young.
my surgeon said I could just take less,he said there has been research that says it may be as effective,or I suppose it’s better than not taking it, has anyone doctors been happy for them to take less tamoxifen than 20 mg? And if you take less have you noticed an improvement in the side effects? If so do yo take 5 mg or 10 mg a day?
my surgeon said I could just take less,he said there has been research that says it may be as effective,or I suppose it’s better than not taking it, has anyone doctors been happy for them to take less tamoxifen than 20 mg? And if you take less have you noticed an improvement in the side effects? If so do yo take 5 mg or 10 mg a day?
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Comments
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Me! I take 10mg as the 20 was too much and my oncologist agreed and prescribed me 10. I was surprised but I thought she would prescribe it if it didn’t work.Feel heaps better1
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Quite a few Oncs are recommending a lower dose rather than stopping altogether these days, which they believe happens to up to 50% of women on AIs (up to 50% stopping altogether!)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5455585/
As you are so young, it might be a good idea to continue with it at the lower dose for as long as you can, so you are at least getting some form of 'protection' ....
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@Milly21 You are lucky you could tolerate 20mg for as long as 6 years before it got too much. 15 weeks is all I could take before the oncologist dropped my dose to 10mg. Then another 15 weeks and he dropped it altogether. Unfortunately that didn't work either as four months later I had a recurrence. He now says we have to find a way to stay on it. So I'm now on 10mg every second day (equiv 5mg) and will take regular breaks from it when it gets too much. Better to be on something than nothing but I can't say if it will be successful. There's not many options as I'm only in my 40's, but they have had success in American studies so I'm hopeful.
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