Cutting Tamoxifen Dose?

Anonymous

Have any of my sistas cut their tamoxifen dosage -- with the blessing of their onc or on their own?  I swear I wouldn't even have so much body cramps & aches if I could cut it in half.  I take 20 mg. daily but read where some Stage 3's take 10 mg.  Any reduction may help but am not sure what docs would say.  My onc would like me to keep taking it for another 5 yrs. 

sherry67

Shelly56,

I take 10 in the am and 10 in the pm helps with decreasing SE. I have had no issues...sherry

christina1961

I take 10 in the am and 10 at night also - it has really helped a lot with the side effects. 

coraleliz

My MO has given me his "blessing" to cut my dose to 10mg. I did this for a month & my SEs weren't much different on the lower dose.I went back to 20mg. Mainly because I couldn't find any information/studies/etc that support use of 10mg. I could find no studies addressing lower dose tamoxifen & disease free survival. There are older studies that show 20mg is just as effective as 40mg. My pelvic pain was less but the dizziness & moodiness continued at the lower dose. Those got better with time. I ask my GYN who is also a reproductive endocrinologist what he knew about lower dose usage. He told me the data isn't there & if it was OK with my MO, it was OK with him. I'm reconsidering the lower dose because of uterine/ovary issues that keep popping up. My MO said I can experiment with 15mg. I just passed the half way mark of my 5yrs & trying to hold on. My guess is that some MOs believe the lower dose is better than nothing. I weigh 105lbs, so maybe I don't need as much as someone who weighs 150??

Anonymous

Coraleliz:  When I asked my onc today about it, she said no way should I cut the dose, primarily because of being grade 3 aggressive tumor.  She wants to keep me on it for a full 5 years, so probably until November of ths year then we may switch to something else.

Sherry&Christina: I think that I probably could take 10 mg in morning and 10 mg at night, just as long as it's the 20 mg. daily.  Thanks for the info !! 

jennyboog

Sorry Shelly, I know it's not the news you were hoping for.  My dr. is insistent that I continue on Aromasin no matter what, they put so much faith in that lil' pill.  Something you might consider is...my primary care dr. put me on Celebrex for another problem I was having but it has helped a lot with aches and pains.  I hate that it's another pill to take but it has improved my QOL, maybe it can give you some relief as well.

Anonymous

Jenny -- I would do the celebrex except my onc doesn't want me to take it, because of the effects on the heart.  So I'll take tylenol or arthritis pain reliever instead.  I only was prescribed celebrex once by her when I was having such joint pain after taxol treatment, and didn't take more than a couple of doses.