Neurontin (gabapentin) for hot flashes

MTNCLMBR

I take tamoxifen now, but I have been having no period and hot flashes since chemo (I’m 37). my doctor recommended Effexor for combating hot flashes, but I can’t tske SSRI’s (had bad experience in the past and don’t want to try them again). So she suggested a low dose of neurontin (also called gabapentin)instead. 100mg before bed. The hot flashes are just annoying in that they wake me up and I can’t get back to sleep for hours. Sometimes I’m up at 3am for the duration of the night. It’s craziness. Other than that I really have no problems with tamoxifen. I don’t even realize I’m taking it. And like I said I had hot flashes from before I started tamoxifen, just from the chemo frying my ovaries.

So I took 100mg of neurontin for a month (I take it before bed) and I’m still getting hot flashes at night. I am trying out 200mg now, but it’s not working yet. I’m not sure if I should try to keep slowly upping the dose or just forget about the whole thing since it might not ever work at all. The neurontin at this low dose doesn’t seem to be doing anything. The bottle has disclaimers like “be sure you know how this effects you before operating a vehicle”, etc....but it does nothing to me. Not sleepy, nothing.

Anyone have any experience?

NCGirl1

Hi MTCLMBER,

I would look into Effexor again. It is not an SSRi, it is actually an SNRI, a complete different class of drug, which works well with tamoxifen. SSRI's actually block the effectiveness of Tamoxifen. So since Effexor is in a different class than an SSRI you might tolerate it well. Hope you find something that works well soon!!!

exercise_guru

• Gabapentin did not get Give me good results. It had other side effects I could not deal with such a memory loss . I like Effexor. I am on th lowest dose. I can Sleep through the night without hot flashes.

Vslush

I take gabapentin and it does help with hot flashes for me. The 100mg did nothing, so I upped it to 300mg at night. I have been known to take 300 midday if I need it. I don't take Tamoxifin though, so I don't know if that's safe for you or not. If your Dr says it's alright, you might try upping the dosage.

Vickki