Forum Discussion
It's Letrozole For Me
Saw my oncologist this morning. She is giving me two to three more weeks to heal from the BMX & reconstruction and then it's on to Letrozole for 7 - 10 years.
She said it makes no difference which AI I start on and alternates with each patient!
She said seven years but it may be 10 as there are three clinical trials due to mature in that time.
She said it makes no difference which AI I start on and alternates with each patient!
She said seven years but it may be 10 as there are three clinical trials due to mature in that time.
She said that it will almost certainly give me stiff joints which I'll have to manage with exercise & supplements like krill oil. She reported that other women have had success with turmeric and other supplements. I will work through all recommendations in my own clinical trials. Suggestions welcome!
As I'm only (ha!) 51 and was still menstruating when I was diagnosed, she'll monitor my ovaries with blood tests every three months to see if they show any signs of trying to get me to do so again. If they do it's a monthly injection of Zoladex into the belly. Oh joy...
The exercise physiologist at the BCNA Life After Breast Cancer information night was very interesting and informative. So I'm starting to plan what my exercise regime is going to look like. I think maybe something like yoga once a week for stretching and stress management, weights twice a week for warding off the osteoporotic side effects of Letrozole and improving my metabolism, and walking for at least an hour six to seven days a week for cardio health, fat burning and joint stiffness. Does that sound about right? Apart from being a massive time and money soak that is...
The exercise physiologist at the BCNA Life After Breast Cancer information night was very interesting and informative. So I'm starting to plan what my exercise regime is going to look like. I think maybe something like yoga once a week for stretching and stress management, weights twice a week for warding off the osteoporotic side effects of Letrozole and improving my metabolism, and walking for at least an hour six to seven days a week for cardio health, fat burning and joint stiffness. Does that sound about right? Apart from being a massive time and money soak that is...
310 Replies
- Hello everyone,
@Kmakm makes a very good point to us about the need to agree to disagree in regards to the value of exercise.
Primek and Kmakm, also make a good point regarding this discussion that it has gone off topic. I will therefore close this post and any further conversations can be started in a new post.
The debate around exercise is an important discussion to have with your oncologist and to make your own decisions from there. - Please, this is a thread about Letrozole. I really don't want the fight about exercise to begin again, and not in this thread which I started to share and learn about Letrozole.
Some of us, including the BCNA, believe that exercise can reduce the chance of a recurrence. Not prevent it, but reduce it. Others do not believe this. How about we all agree to disagree and leave it at that. Please?! K xox - Ok. And just one last thing. It probably should have its own thread. I just wanted to show the difference in life expectancy over the centuary.
What we know now is the longer you live the more likely you are to develop some disease and particularly cancers.
If you have a look at life expectancy in early 1900s many women didn't even make it past 50. So yes....everyone has the rare very old grandparents but they were the minority.
So this explains also why more are diagnosed as more remain alive. I hope that makes sense. Kath x
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features10Mar+2011 - Just to add to @ primek comments above
of ttp://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/do-hormonal-contraceptives-increase-risk
I was on the pill but fleetingly as it did not agree with me. I did note the following -
“Still, research suggested that older forms of hormonal birth control that contained higher doses of hormones were linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. “
I did however spend afewyears on high dose HRT - 2x100 oestrogen patches initially in conjunction with progesterone tablets taken 2 weeks in the month.The progesterone after a year of monitoring was found to be causing major issues for me - some women and I was told have trouble.I then had the patches above alone for a couple of years. After that period I was required to accept a Mirena IUD as part of a clinical trial if I wished to continue with the patches.I lasted 3 + months as yet again the progesterone in the IUD caused major problems.I then used a phytoestrogen principally Remifemin
I often wonder if the high dose oestrogen patches contributed to my breast cancer although I accept what @ primek says about other risk factors.There is no history of breast cancer in my family. - Well my Oncologist completely refutes it all and its logical. If exercise reduced risk of recurrence pretty much stats would be next to zero lol. I guess each to their own its not just my Oncologist who has said thiis but many Specialists at Epworth all say its in yr duagnosis and genetics exercise will not change yr genetics lol. But hey ive exercised before both and after both diagnosis...didnt change anything lol and the Oncologist said it wont. Oh of course i must be in the small percent that does relapse hmmm nothing to do with my genetics lol. Silly me I must ask majority of people i know as they have relapsed too sadly inspite of exercise. @iserbrown @Aggie I must be mistaken. Lol
- Ok lets look at the pill.
It has protective factors against ovarian cancer. Research has shown that.
Hundreds and thousands of woman take the pill but the cancer diagnosis doesn't correlate with that. If it was as simple as that...well it would have been sorted.
Increased numbers are due to screening programs picking up more and those at stage zero that possibly would not go on to develop invasive breast cancer.
IVF does have slightly increased risk factors due to extremely high doses ... but not in breast cancer. Yes they did studies.
All cancers are more prevelant after 50. This is the age cell division isn't going as well and our body isn't as effective in dealing with the changes. Look around the chemo rooms and take stock at the ages.
Menopause can be the turning point for women who have cell changes as it can also mean surges in hormone. ..which might contribute to providing extra nutrition for abnormal cells.
Young women commonly have breast cancer that isn't even related to hormones, as are women of all ages.
It isn't our hormones causing breast cancer it's our bodies failure to recognise it. Breast cancer cells ...due to their nature rely on hormones to help reproduce. Hense why the recommendation to stop the pill and HRT immediately as it may be providing nutrition for the cancer cells and we want to starve them.
So ladies lets not panic about oral contraception. It actually only mimics natural hormones we have when pregnant. That little worry would have been one of the 1st things those cancer researchers would have studied. It's the obvious thing to blame.
The reality is ...they don't know.
What they do know is less people who exercise and lose weight (not necessarily get into HWR just lose some) after getting breast cancer has a reduced risk of recurrence. Not zero. Just reduced. That's something we can realistically strive for. And they were not minority studies. It was recently put up by bcna about the study only a few weeks ago.
http://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/discussion/18577/exercise-and-breast-cancer/p1 - @Brenda5 @arpie I was asked a series of these questions at BreastScreen when I was called back for the biopsy. Have you been on the pill? Have you had children? Did you breastfeed them? Do you drink alcohol? How much per week? Notes were jotted.
- I was on oral contraceptives from my early 20s to mid to late 30s when hubby finally had a vasectomy ....
"Have you ever been on oral or injected Contraceptives?"
I wonder if they've ever included that on the question list once you've been diagnosed ...... it wouldn't be difficult for a researcher to collate the info!
Cos - there definitely seems to be a HUGE increase in the number of women being diagnosed - and I guess those in the mid-late 60/early 70s were the 'guinea pigs' ... - I had been on oral contraceptives all my adult life except for a few years in having children. At 53 in 2015 I was diagnosed and was still on the pill. The doc said get off em, the cancer is feeding on it. My periods stopped immediately and I only got one more period during chemo early 2016 and that was it. No spotting, no nothing. Full on menopause. Still having hot flushes while on Tamoxifen today. I am up for review in October and will probably be put on Femara then.
