Bald and bewildered

Hi Louise,

Tamoxifen will probably be a walk in the park for you after that dreadful chemo! I tried it 7years ago when I was peri meno(47yrs)and it so didn't agree with me -had bad hot flushes every 15mins.,bad headaches,irritable and crying++.But I hadn't had chemo beforehand.I stopped after a few months.Anyway,this time around it seems to be agreeing with me(sort of).This might be because I'm post menopause(I have heard that helps).I get hot flushes -worse on hot days,night sweats and sleep disturbances,and a bit  irritable sometimes.A few months ago I got very down and was crying alot.I think it was partly the Tamoxifen kicking in and being so bald with no sign of any hair.My oncologist prescribed me Endep(10mg)which is a very mild antidepressant that sometimes helps with hot flushes,sleep and mood.It certainly helped with sleep and mood.But my hair started to come through by the 3rd month post chemo so maybe that cheered me up-who knows!My onc.thought I looked brighter and said to keep going status quo. When my hair grows abit more I'll come off Endep I think.

What I would say to you when you start Tamoxifen is to get Genox brand.My husband came back from the chemist a few weeks ago with a different brand(tamoxifen sanoz I think)and I had a reaction to it ie.facial rash and bad headache for 3 days.It had different"non active"ingredients in it.Exactly the same thing happened to a friend of mine.My surgoen said she had heard that genox was more tolerated. By the way,my friend(who is older) had no side effects from tamoxifen whatsoever! So you never know.

                                            Tonya