Joint pain and tamoxifen

Pattiec

I am an 8 year survivor of breast cancer. Go regularly for mammograms and all in all through I was doing fine. Now almost 10 years, my joints are KILLING Me. My knees are awful. I am 58 years old and dread climbing stairs. I play golf, but need to ride in a cart... this year has been the worst! Right now I've been icing and trying to cope but it seems to be getting worse. I was put on Letrosol for 1 week and could not even reach my shelves to put away my dishes, it affected my system so much. So I was put back on Tamoxifen until 10 year anniversary. Any other 10 year survivors on Tamopxifen so long? I'm thinking I want to just stop taking it...but afraid.

farmerlucy

I made it four years. I asked my onc for the BCI test to see what my risk of recurrence was, but she was reluctant to order it since it is not standard of care. You might have better luck asking your onc about it. I had terrible joint pain on two AI, so I went back to Tamoxifen for the last year. I started and stopped it three times in five years and each time I had issues with my Achilles' tendon. I've been off everything since April. Joints are much better, but I now realize that osteoarthritis has set in since surgical menopause. Congratulations on making it so far.