Arimidex Woes
Hi,
I was prescribed Arimidex and read as much as I could about it before swallowing that first pill 5 weeks ago. The first 2 days were fine and then the hot flushes hit me like a sauna on steroids...
Forum Discussion
Hi San-Dee,
I know how hard it can be to have your quality of life affected by an aromatose inhibitor. I switched from Tamoxifen to Letrozole last October after having my ovaries removed. In my experience (and what other ladies and my osteopath, oncologist and surgeon told me) it can take a few months for your body to adjust and the side effects to settle. For me it was about the 3 month mark where life began to improve again. The sleeplessness is the hardest bit I think!
I also had a lot of joint pain which affected my ability to exercise for a month or two. I wondered if that was affecting my sleep too! I tried lots of different things to see if they helped. I changed the time of day I took my tablet (from night to morning). I increased my magnesium supplement, did more yoga and meditation before bed. Reduced my coffee intake (I only had one small one a day, so I tried going without every second day!!)
In the end I think it was just time that improved it! But at least I kept busy trying different things and sometimes got hopeful that I could feel a bit of an improvement for a few days.
The hot flushes were worse for a while but they also improved a great deal at about the 3 month mark. My oncologist said that I could expect to keep improving for up to 6 months or more.
I did ask about swapping back to Tamoxifen which was a lot less of a problem for me (I was on it for 2 years) but an aromatose inhibitor gives me better protection from recurrence. At the end of the day I figured the three months of disruption and reduced quality of life was much more preferable to getting a recurrence. I just looked at it as another part of my treatment and thank goodness it did settle! Maybe I was also fortunate that this did not occur straight after all my active treatment when I would have already been exhausted from all that.
Wishing you all the best with it and hoping that it settles soon. Talking to my medical team helped me to persist, especially when my onc explained what typically seems to happen and what my choices were. Deanne xxx