Aromatase Inhibitors: To use or not to use?

Have been on Arimidex for 5 years. Was 51 when started, Chemo put me ttrough menpuase after a decade of doctors telling Any complaint, migraine etc was because I was perimenopausal.

Arimidex & other treatments have caused arthtitis, elevated hypertension, 6 kg weight gain, cholesterol issues, partly responsible for ostepaenia but put with up with this because at least I am cancer free for 6 years after triple positive high grade 3 cancer with lymph nodes infected and Lymphoedema.

NOthing would ever make me go on Hormone tratment not b4 BC diagnosis and certainly not since. As I understand it aromatase inhibitors & tamoxifen remove hormones from hormone positive cancers. Check very carefully with oncologist b4 using ANY hormone tratment.

I too felt down when 18 months of chemo & herceptin finished and still was suffering chemo brain. But I just took the attitude one has to soldier on in spite of monetary hassles; husband with bipolar; do what one can & can or delay what one can't

Hi girls, I have never participated on an online network before but I am feeling the need to express my frustrations somewhere! My family doesnt get me anymore, they think my bc journey is over and should get on with life. I cant. I dont like my new 'normal'.

I took Arimidex for 3 months and felt dreadful. Bad headaches, depressed and felt my body weighed a ton. My Oncologist took me off those and put me on Aromasin. I took these for 6 months and continued to feel depressed, suicidal, ached all over and extremely fatigued.

Recently a good friend made me go back to my Oncologist to discuss how I was feeling. I didnt want to waste his time and felt I just had to put up with these side effects like thousands of other woman are.

I eventually went to my onc and he was wonderful. Im now off the Aromasin for 4 weeks then I have to start the Tamoxifen.  

Im so confused about what to do. Im 52 and used to be a happy, social person, Im now miserable all the time and dont know if its worth taking any hormonal treatment. Is a miserable life now worth it, to perhaps reduce a recurrence? I had a stage 2 IDC, no lymph node invasion. I had two surgeries to get a clear margin and 6 weeks of radiotherapy. From all accounts an early bc with good prognosis. I am lucky, I know this. So many women have much harder roads to travel. This period of time after all the invasive treatment has finished I am finding so much harder.

I guess I just want to know if anyone else feels like this on these drugs?

Debbie

My attitude is that if a tretment is offered one should try it. My mother was not a candidate for Herceptin which would have meant she'd been someone with advanced BC to go on the trial. She died a year b4 I was diagnosed @50.

Mine being an aggressive triple positive one meant lymph nodes were removed 5 infected, radiation occurred to 4 places including axilla and I went through a chemo induced menopause and now have Lymphoedema. I was not a candidate for tamoxifen as I'd already had a DVT 15 years b4 BC surgery. I have been on Arimidex for 5 years this month and hope to continue for another 5 if that is what my oncologist wants now that the results of the long term trial are out. 

My grandmother died of leukemia @68, another of possible ovarian cancer after war time deprivation in europe; 2 great aunts lived to 95-96 while Mum survived 26 years after an uneccessary mastectomy with no further treatment given. (My surgeon would have given her a lumpectomy the first year he was operating)

I am glad I have had all th treatment I have had and expect to live a long and full life,

Carol

My attitude is that if a tretment is offered one should try it. My mother was not a candidate for Herceptin which would have meant she'd been someone with advanced BC to go on the trial. She died a year b4 I was diagnosed @50.

Mine being an aggressive triple positive one meant lymph nodes were removed 5 infected, radiation occurred to 4 places including axilla and I went through a chemo induced menopause and now have Lymphoedema. I was not a candidate for tamoxifen as I'd already had a DVT 15 years b4 BC surgery. I have been on Arimidex for 5 years this month and hope to continue for another 5 if that is what my oncologist wants now that the results of the long term trial are out. 

My grandmother died of leukemia @68, another of possible ovarian cancer after war time deprivation in europe; 2 great aunts lived to 95-96 while Mum survived 26 years after an uneccessary mastectomy with no further treatment given. (My surgeon would have given her a lumpectomy the first year he was operating)

I am glad I have had all th treatment I have had and expect to live a long and full life,

Carol

Great to hear from you Helen.  You've done well to handle the side-effects, as these are some of my greatest concerns with any hormonal treatment.  The clinical studies on the longer term effects seem to only be for 5 years after cancer, with a few extending to 10 years.  I'm more interested in the effect in 20 - 30 years time as at 57 I'll only be 77.  To a younger doctor this may seem old, but to me it is still quite young.  My paternal grandmother lived until 99. The risks of getting uterine cancer and memory loss seem to increase around this 20 year zone, and having watched my maternal aunt die last year of uterine cancer and dementia, at 74, 20 years after her breast cancer, it is scary for me. She took Tamoxifen for 5 years. Deirdre