Vaginal bleeding post 2 yrs on hormone therapy. Anyone else?

suzka1992

I started taking Tamoxifen in Nov 2015, post surgery and rads. I took it for 17 months and had really bad hot flashes and night sweats! I swear, every 15 minutes. My oncologist said to "suck it up". Finding a new onc, he drew my estrogen blood levels and said it was low enough to switch to Arimidex, and take it 3x/week. Those side effects were an arms length long. After 7 months on that, he took me off, gave my body a break for a month, and I started Aromasin, also 3x/week. I am on the Aromasin for 4 months, and 2 weeks ago, I start having heavy vaginal bleeding. My gyno, puts me on a birth control pills titer to stop the bleeding (which works) and does a d&c/hysteroscopy. There was 1 tiny polyp and a skin tag type polyp, both benign. A few days after the surgery, I start bleeding again! Back on the titer with the understanding I will get a period when done (I haven't have my period in 1 1/2 yrs.). Meanwhile, I go to the  onco. he takes me off the Aromasin and my bloodwork shows very low iron due to the blood loss. I need iv iron, 2 doses. I barely finished the iv bag and I had a reaction to the iron. My next dose will be a different type of iron. Also, I started bleeding again, which I assume is the period I was told I would get. It is day 2 and heavy, I put a call to FYI my gyno, Has anyone else had a similar issue? The birth control fix seems counter productive to the anti estrogen and the iron supplements seem like a bandaide to counteract the blood loss. I want the bleeding to stop but a hysterectomy is off the table, as my gyno said we're not doing it, it's major surgery.  I have 2 1/2 years left on the anti estrogen, as my blood work shows I would only benefit with 5 yrs of anti estrogen therapy. My onco says I HAVE to take 1 of the 4. The difference in the odds of reoccurrence are too great to not take it.  Ruling out Arimidex and Aromasin, I figure I'd go back to the Tamoxifen, at least, hot flashes aren't life threatening. He suggested I try a virtual reality, Bubble study for the hot flashes, which I'm open to and am due to begin the Tamoxifen in a week. I thought the hard part was over, meaning the surgery and rads, but this is really difficult and my quality of life is suffering. 

Falconer

suzka so sorry you're dealing with this; it sounds awful and you're right, worse than surgery and rads. I haven't had bleeding, though always curious since I'm on Tam now. Hopefully someone else will come along who knows about this. Hope you find relief

farmerlucy

I did a low dose of Effexor for hot flashes when I was taking HT. It helped a lot.

Perimenopause can cause all sorts of wierd bleeding. I was seeing my gyn waaay too much when I was taking tamoxifen. I finally asked for a hysterectomy. Best decision I ever made.

keepthefaith

suzka, you don't have your stats online or your age, but for what it's worth, I had a hyst/ooph at age 50 with fibroids and ovarian cysts being the culprits. I was hoping it would greatly reduce my BC risk...but, 8 yrs later, BC. For me the Hyst was easy peasy and one less thing for me to worry about now. I don't know if your condition warrants a HX, but you could always get another opinion. I am not advocating either way, but it sounds like you are not happy with the way things are now...QOL should come in to play also. Maybe Effexor is the answer, like farmerlucy said. We all have to do what we think is best for our bodies. I hope you find something that works for you.