Indole-3-Carbinol 

I do take the full 20mg tamoxifen tablet every morning. And I take the DIM supplement of 150mg at lunch time. It's actually a product called Breast Balance which as well as the DIM contains vitamin D, selenium and iodine - nutrients that are typically found to be deficient in women with breast cancer. You can find it in the BioResponse Nutrients website if you are interested.

As I said this stuff may help but it's not fully proven. Perhap you could try taking some anti-depressants with tamoxifen, even a half dose  with DIM perahps. Although I'm not a medical professional of any kind so talk to your doctor about these things of course.

My oncologist, by the way, said she did not know what DIM or I3C were (not sure if actually believe that tbh). I wrote her a letter outlining all the supplements I was taking, including this one,  and she didn't express any objection. I just don't think she wants to engage in any discussion about nutrition/diet/supplemnts or anything vagualy 'alternative'. Whenever I have tried she shuts down the conversation with 'just eat a healthy well balanced diet'. But I figure if there was any real danger in taking the DIM she would have warned me about it.

Firstly, I am so sorry to read that you have been diagnosed with BC at such a young age.  I was diagnosed at 46 (am 49 now) and I have been taking both tamoxifen and diindolylmethan or DIM for just over two years. DIM is a related substance, derived from cruciferous vegetables like I3C. From what I have read DIM is safer and less likely to cause side-effects. I did actually take I3C briefly and it made me a bit dizzy.

I Iave not had any noticeable side effects from the DIM and I am lucky in that I seem to tolerate the tamoxifen pretty well too. Back when I was researching all this stuff, I came across a study being done by the University of Arizona in which they were trying to determine whether taking DIM in conjunction with tamoxifen was more effective in preventing a recurrance of BC than tamoxifen alone. Obviously it will take a few years to know the outcome of this but I thought if they are giving DIM to women in a study it must be reasonably safe. In the info I read about the study it mentioned that they obtain the DIM from Bioresponse Nutrients. So that's where I get mine too. I have to send off to the US for it. It's not cheap - about $48 dollars for 60 capsules (I take one a day). But I figure it may provide me with an extra level of protection from BC recurrance.

I guess I was prompted to look into all of this before I started taking my tamoxifen. I was scared it would give me awful side effects as I understand it does for some people. So when I started taking both the DIM and tamoxifen together I thought that if the tamoxifen turned out to be awful I could go off it and double my dose of the DIM. I am relieved that it has not been too bad because while the DIM may be helping it is not a proven medication for BC recurrance. I would be a lot more nervous relying on that alone,. But then, I expect it would be better than taking nothing at all.

I know the medications can be awful Lamour but please think carefully about ditching them. You have so much estrogen at your age and it is a big risk to take. DIM or IC3 may help but they don't have the proven record of tamoxifen or the other mainstream drugs. Anyway, best of luck to you. Janet.