I'm on Femara and my hands are getting crippled?

The exact same thing has happened to me. Because I am almost 75 years old I actually thought it was just old age, arthritis and maybe sleeping on my hands the wrong way. But I recently emailed a new internet friend, and she happened to mention that she had “trigger thumb and was on letrozole” which is Femara!!! Holy Cow....was I ever shocked. I had no idea that the drug was associated with joint pain and the same effects that you are having. I’m going to discuss it with My oncologist as soon as possible. My friend said that she had Cortizone shots but they didn’t really help. However she said she was on oral dose of hyalonic (spelling?) acid and that seems to be helping believe it or not. Discuss this with your doctor. Good luck/be well.

I just found this older thread. I too am having issues with swollen hands, trigger finger, etc. Another issue that I have that I don't think was mentioned as a possible side effect is De Quervain's tendinosis on my wrist. I had hit my wrist on a countertop. For a year, I had quite a bit of pain. My doctor finally sent me to a hand surgeon who gave me the diagnosis. I had OT with the hand specialist. It helped - not completely. I changed from Arimidex to Fermara. That seems to help the wrist but made the fingers worse.

Good luck with your wrist!

Hi again,

dakrock as you mention I also hesitated to contact the doctor with my complaints but finally did since the numbness in my arm has increased during the last months. The doctor suggested an MRI but has a trip planned for 2 weeks coming up this week that I will not cancel, however I am beyond worried so will try to put it on the back of my head, go on my trip and do my MRI when I come back. My reasoning is if it has spread it has and these two weeks might be my last trip in case I get bad news. I am trying to prepare myself mentally for a relapse, trying to accept the fact that it might happen, this to be more calm if I get the news no one wants to hear. Regarding my wrist it is most likely De Quervain's syndrome going on. I am wearing a support "glove" at the moment hoping it will get better. I am a bit devastated at the moment.

I will post more at my oc but I after being on Arimidex for 2 months I developed numbness in both hands. Pain in the knuckles joints and clicking . Prior to the Arimidex i had a dbl mastectomy/complete hysterectomy

With side effects from the AI my hands were so weak I could no longer cut vegetables and meat or lift heavy pans.

I switched to femara and something similar happened. Then switched to tamoxifen because the loss of use of my hands I was going to lose my job (computer work)and it was seriously affecting my family and life.

The pain resided but the numbness remained.

I did hand therapy and eventually had hand surgery for trigger finger and carpal tunnel. It gave aomw relief but my hands have never been the same

My dietician thinks I should try B12 shots and coenzymeQ. I will report back .

Kattis894 is your pain in just one wrist or both? Mine is in one wrist only, my Cancer side (and dominant hand, so wondering if the lymphedema sleeve I've been wearing for past six weeks is cause, or can letrozole cause pain on one side only?

toughcookie- im a single sided pain sufferer from letrozole. Pain in left hand (cancer was in right breast and microcalcs in left breast). Before I started taking turmeric/curcumin it would be so bad some days that it felt like if you touched my hand too hard it would crack and break into a million pieces. Some days I would've lovef to have just cut that hand off. The curcumin has helped tremendously. Now it's a little bothersome and stiff in the morning when I wake up but after a few minutes of flexing it I'm good to go til the next morning. I take 1 geltab of Solgar brand curcumin a day,

I'm 3 years out from finishing 5 years on Femara. I was left with 2 trigger fingers, that did not resolve with time. I had surgery on both last year. Both are great now. I was reluctant because that was the the side I had lymph nodes removed on, but all is well!!