FEMARA

Scottie that is the one thing that I thought I was alone in so your answer is yes. My hair has gotten so thin but the shedding seems to have now stopped.

I had itchiness everywhere and a hair on my skin felt awful! I am on a break from it now and that has gone away.

Hi Ladies, I have been on femera for about 8 months after completing 5 yrs of tamoxifen (in addition to surgery, chemo and radiation). The TAC(chemo) left me with lots of muscle and nerve pain that gradually went away after about three yrs.  Now I am feeling totally beaten down by femera.  I tolerated tamoxifen fairly well but femera is causing such fatique, muscle and nerve pain, loss of sex drive as well as lately I am feeling depressed and very unmotivated.  Pre cancer I was so vibrant, working, exercising , raising a family, laughing etc.  I just hate femera and am thinking of quiting.  However my Onc says it is the new protocol to do 5 yrs of femera after 5 yrs of tamoxifen if you are at high risk for recurrance.  Is the benefit really worth this poor feeling?  I want to do all I can to stay NED but am feeling very sad thinking about the next four yrs of this .  Will the side effects diminish?  I need some hope !

I had only been on it for 10 months but was having a terrible time with fatigue, pain, joint stiffness and arthritic SE (felt like i was 90 years old) so dr wants me off for 10 weeks. Will have to decide if I am going back on or trying a new one in January. I did not realize how bad i was feeling till I stopped taking it! Can not live like that for 5 years...

Thanks for your input ladies, it always makes a person feel so much better knowing they aren't alone !  Ginger i think I will try and see my oncologist and see if I can take some time off also, I can't even remember how it felt before I had all these meds coursing through my blood, I long for a feeling of health and energy ! Cheers

Thanks Momine !  I have been trying to keep up with my exercise, but just feel so worn out and basically like you say, "inflammed" the next few days that it has been getting me down.  My mood usually is elevated the day I exercise at the gym but it's the next few days that are bad.  I think I'm going to get out my cross country ski stuff today and see how some fresh air will help also !  Sounds like you had a rough go of the cancer treatment, how are you doing now?  I will definitely take your advice and check out the foods that cause more inflammation. What do you think about taking some Aleve  to combat the achiness, I hate taking more stuff but maybe it will help my mood also if I'm not so sore every day.  Keep in touch !

hope, I was taking a tylenol each day, but a few weeks ago decided to stop.  My hubby tells me that my moods have been better since I stopped the tylenol.  (I cannot take NSAIDS like Aleve, so they weren't a choice for me.)  As Momine says, it's important to eat as non-inflammatory as possible, and exercise does help.  If you have allergies, stay as much away from your allergens as you can - they will make you ache much worse.

I also take a number of supplements such as curcumin and ginger which IMO help.  I've been on it (letrozole) a little over a year.  I had such horrible SE's with tamoxifen that I only did it for 6 months.  I don't want to change again, as my oncologist seems to restart the clock whenever I change meds.  So for me, right now, a little under 4 years to go. 

Day, your post about the letrozole not causing the side effects, is important to reiterate. The drug is doing its job, blocking the estrogen, keeping it from fueling those breast cancer cells. The hair loss, joint pain, hot flashes, insomnia, are all symptoms of low estrogen. Make sure your vitamin d3 level is above 50. That has helped me for the last 10 months of taking the letrozole.

Hi all I have just finished my years of tamoxifen. I also did a 5 year trial ( I got a shot of triptorelin) every month to shut down my ovaries. Because I was pre-menopausal when this all started. Now my doc thinks I should automatically be post-menopausal now naturally due to my age and the 5 yrs of chemically indused menopause. So he wants me to wait for 6 mths then start femara. I have been reading about the femara and I am spilt on it the pros and cons. It kinda was a blow cause I was hoping this was the end of BC because I did all the treatments and thought I was cancer free. Just really mixed feelings. I'm just looking to see has anybody had mild se from the femara if so what or how bad is it really.

Thanks for your help

Oh, and about that there foot pain. I went to get some new booties today. I put them on in the shop and the pain was bad. I felt all sad that I wouldn't be able to get them, but then I asked for a size bigger than I normally wear. Problem solved. I wear them with soft, cushiony sock and it is totally fine.

Momine and Jacee thanks for your input....I'm probably going to try it and see what happens and if it is unbearable I will quit it. Then again I don't know what menopausal state I will be in either. We never discussed if I was still premeopausal what course of therapy I would need. I'm just trying to get some more information before I make the decision.

Oh regarding se they are worse then the tamoxifen? The se I had with it was come and go hot flashes (mostly at night) which I think brought on fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, low sex drive and hit and miss depression.

Thanks again ladies

Day, sorry, I must have misinterpreted your Oct 19th post when you said the letrozole itself doesn't cause joint pain, the lack of estrogen does. In that post, your comment about it causing menopause x 20, was spot on. I've only been on it for 10 months, and so far, so good. We'll see what another year of less estrogen brings, and how many more SE's I can tolerate.

Chrissyb thanks for your input

I agree, Letrozole/femara for me is doable apart from my thinning hair and a few aches and pains...not so bad.

Yeh, I have tried EVERYTHING....the thinning has lessened somewhat and not so brittle

anymore, but I'm 65 so what can I expect?......lol....thank you for the advice however.

I just keep it very, very short and put a colour rinse in it once in a while....in the scheme of things, it's just hair....lol