Early breast cancer treatment decision
Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate hearing from others in a similar situation. I’m young, not (as) close to menopause, and recently had a lumpectomy for a 12 mm, grade 1, ER+/PR+ HER2- IDC. Margins ...
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Hi Shae, 👋 I am someone who found menopause symptoms dreadful. I suffered them for 2 years at great personal cost to my quality of life and mental health because people warned me off HRT. Finally a wonderful specialist put me straight and I had my former beautiful life restored with HRT.
After many years I was diagnosed with early breast cancer and advised to taper off HRT. I did so. I had a lumpectomy and then when they couldn’t get margins, I had a unilateral mastectomy. My oncologist/breast surgeon was adamant about me taking Tamoxifen. By this point some of my previous symptoms had returned and so I wasn’t going to be easily convinced. I did plenty of homework and at my next appointment I asked what my personal risk was of the cancer returning. I was told 6% in 15 years. Taking Tamoxifen would reduce the risk to 3%. What??? I have a 94% chance of NOT getting cancer and you want me to vastly reduce my quality of life for the next 15 years?
After quite a tussle, feeling talked down to and having my concerns dismissed, I nevertheless stood my ground. By this point I was waking up first thing in the morning crying for no apparent reason and feeling that without HRT I might not even be around in 15 years. I felt so browbeaten that I considered taking the script and just not filling it, but instead I explained that my quality of life was more important to me than my longevity. The oncologist finally relented.
As I walked to the door, he told me it was actually a reasonable decision and that had I been in Scandinavia, doctors would not even have suggested Tamoxifen!
Everyone has their own circumstances and decisions to make, I don’t seek to influence your decision at all. I am just sharing my personal story. I’m probably an ‘outlier’ because I have since gone back on HRT and I had an oestrogen positive cancer. I own my own decisions, and I will take the consequences for those decisions, as I have my whole life. I’m loving the life I have now. The future is unknowable but my priority is now.