getting my period again after finishing Tamoxifen -- nervous

kika2013

I'm about 5.5 years out from diagnosis and recently finished Tamoxifen (about 6 months early with my onc's blessing). After a few months of random periods/light periods, I now seem to be back on my old schedule of every 28/29 days, very mild PMS symptoms (some cramping, painful breasts), normal periods. It's making me very nervous as I think about those hormones washing through my breasts, especially, as my cancer was very hormone positive (ER and PR). I'm 47 now, diagnosed at 42. I was released by my onc to survivorship in the summer, but haven't seen anyone there yet and am just wondering if anyone can speak to this issue. After 5 years of trying to prevent hormones, it feels sort of terrifying to be so aware of them again and to wonder what they might be encouraging to grow. Part of the reason my onc said it was okay to stop Tamoxifen a bit early was because she thought I was hitting perimenopause (also, it was making me insane...!). That doesn't seem to be the case.

Thanks for all experience/advice.

star2017

it is tricky. Do you have any additional genetic risk? What do your doctors think?

In my case, my period came back after five months on tamoxifen. The doctors were surprised but, given my genetic risk and history, felt I should have the ovaries removed to reduce the risk of recurrence and the risk of ovarian cancer. I just did that three weeks ago.