I'm going to stop taking Letrozole, anyone else do so?

sweetp6217

Hello all,

I am at my whits end about these side effects, most of which I have. I have an appointment this coming week with my MO and I am going to let her have it! All doctors say, "keep taking it, we'll take care of the side effects". WRONG, well, mostly wrong. For a month or so, I won't be taking the med. Anyone else try that to see if some of the SE go bye bye?

sweetp6217

Well, my first post was a bit wordy and I have since stopped taking Letrozole. I had begun taking it almost 2 years ago and my MO agreed that I should try not taking it for a while. In the meantime, I have a bone scan coming up. Here's hoping that some of my SEs from taking letrozole disappear.

At least my MO accepted the copy of an article about a recent study :"Predictive Biomarkers and Novel Therapeutic Strategies in Oncology" Contrary to the commonly held view, 2 years after diagnosis, hormone therapy, a highly effective breast cancer treatment worsens quality of life to a greater extent and for a longer time, especially in menopausal patients.

I'm curious if anyone else has tried not taking letrozole and if it helped.

LimnoGal

sweetp-after 3.5 years, I have quit letrozole because of side effects. Mostly quality of life issues (weight gain, foot pain, hair loss, change in body odor). At my MOs request, I tried exemestane for two months. I stopped gaining weight and the hair loss slowed considerably. My husband doesn't complain quite so much about the change in body odor. But the foot pain remains. I know the foot pain is from the AIs because it went away when I took an MO-sanctioned vacation from them.

I am currently taking a month long vacation from all meds, then will try a month of tamoxifen. Different mode of action, different side effects?

If the side effects are tolerable, I'll stick with it. If not, I'm done.

Good luck with your decision!

sweetp6217

Thank you LimnoGal,

Sorry that you had side effects. Mine are neuropathy, bone/muscle/tissue pains, numbness in extremities, weight gain, ringing ears, cognitive issues, etc. Some of those may not be related to letrozole.

dtad

sweetp6217...I might have already said this in an earlier post but I'm so sorry you experienced such severe side effects from Letrozole. QOL does matter. Its a very personal decision and I respect all made. Only you can know if or when its time to stop. I have an autoimmune neuropathy not related to BC. My neurologist told me that neuropathic pain is the worst pain there is! So I get it! Feel better...