Ridiculosly silly question, but oh well...

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Mom3
Mom3 Member Posts: 170
edited June 2014 in Stage III Breast Cancer

My cancer was triple positive. I had an oopherectomy about 2 years ago and I've been on Arimidex since then. My question is this, since I'm no longer producing hormone (or at least small amounts) why is my skin so unbelievably oily? Aren't oils produced by hormone? Is this a sign that despite all efforts I'm still producing estrogen? I remember my oncologist saying I would produce a very small amount but that my taking the Arimidex would get rid of it. ?????

 I told you it was silly.

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  • KerryMac
    KerryMac Member Posts: 3,529
    edited November 2010

    The only thing I can think is that oily skin is dependant on your oil/sweat glands rather than Estrogen. I just consulted Dr Google, and found the following - During menopause, hormonal imbalances can also upset the oil balance and increase the activity of sebaceous glands. So, the fact that you have no Estrogen can maybe be what is making you produce more oli.

    And its not a silly question! I wake myself up in the night stressing over stupider stuff. 

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  • weesa
    weesa Member Posts: 707
    edited November 2010

    Have a couple of thoughts: This happened to a friend of mine in her early 70's while taking an AI. She got a bunch of zits for the first time in her life. Her onc told her the dominant hormone in her body was now testosterone, no longer balanced by estrogen, and the testosterone was causing oiliness.

    I thought it was a good idea when I took AI's to have a sensitive assay estradiol test once in a while to see if my serumn estradiol was actually low. (It was.)

    Not silly--I always worried whether or not the AI's I took actually worked!

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