Menopause or Tamoxifen

Jumpship

I'm nearly two years from my last TCH and a year from the last Herceptin. If I'm lucky I'll see 50 this year. I need to know...what does menopause feel like? I've been on Tamoxifen for two years. I've taken a few day holidays and one whole week holiday because I could no longer take the dull pain, overall aching. At the end of the day here my whole body aches. If I try and walk the ankles don't move well. After 12 steps or so I can move like an old lady. But overall this whole body ache thing makes me want to cry. Sure, I suck it up and go to work and come home and make dinner, etc. When I mention it to the doctor she says it could be Tamoxifen or menopause. My 85 year old mother in law can beat me in a race from the couch to the kitchen, and she is one inactive person! So, for those of you who have not been on Tamoxifen...what does menopause feel like? And is it a lifetime of it or just a few years. I just can't take this any more.

Lula73

I've not been through menopause yet but it's coming this summer with hysterectomy and oophorectomy. The joint stiffness you're experiencing is common with Tamoxifen. I have it too and I can barely stand much less walk when I first get up in the morning. And my fingers and hands have been very stiff in the morning the last week or so now too. The stiffness improves as I stay up longer though. I think this is isolated to the Tamoxifen treatment itself and perhaps be related to no estrogen binding occurring in our bodies or just an all out side effect period. Our ovaries produce about 80% of our estrogen. Other organs make the other 20%. So without Tamoxifen blocking the estrogen's action, menopause would just eliminate the majority of our estrogen but not all. I can't say for sure but I would think there's light at the end of the tunnel whenever we are able to stop Tamoxifen therapy. Especially if you get relief when you have taken your Tamoxifen holidays.

Jumpship

Thanks Lulu. I don't get much physical relief on the holidays. It just gives me a chance to gather my faculties and try again.