Not sure about Tamoxifen

hi, I just finished 5 years on tamox and did all right so not everyone has a bad experience. 

Hot flashes, yes, but they started with chemo and continue today.  Best wishes!

Keep in mind that people tend to post when they are having problems, questions or issues. They are many women who never had problems who don't post their success. (or even visit this website).

Agreed--not everyone has bad SEs and for some patients, the SEs they do have calm down after a few months. As my RO said, we BC survivors are also at higher risk for a second primary (boo) so tamox can help with that too. As others have said, you can always try and see and stop if the SEs are too much. Another option is to plan to take it for awhile, but maybe not the full 5 years. When I was deciding I did a lot of research on PubMed and found at least one study that showed taking tamox for 2 years is better than 0, but 5 was best. The benefits seemed to be front loaded.

I took tamox for two years with no real SEs in my daily life. I have a rare bone condition so I did a DEXA scan before and two years out. They don't talk about this much, but some pre-meno women have bone loss on tamox, and I was one of them. I took a one year break and then restarted (when my BS found a lump--just a fatty lump but a cancer scare for me). I was peri-meno and believe it or not, taking tamox for that final year before menopause boosted my bone density again. Yay! I plan to take it for the first few years of meno, when most women have their greatest period of bone loss. So for me, I'll take it 5-6 years total, with a one year break. As an FYI, I had a friend who had melanoma and had just a 4% chance of recurrence. Unfortunately, she was in the 4%. So these statistics are funny. At some point it feels like 50:50 chance, either is comes back or not, and it sometimes feels like a total crap shoot. bleech ;(

My counselor said that it's hard to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. Her advice is to make a decision that you'll be comfortable with, no matter what the outcome. She suggested sitting and considering each situation:

a) taking tamox and not having a recurrence;

b) taking tamox and having a recurrence;

c) skipping tamox , no recurrence;

d) skipping tamox and having a recurrence)

Her thought is that if you can get in touch with your feelings for each of these scenarios, it can help guide your decision. Best of luck. This decision making is so hard, but know that whatever you decide, it will be the right decision for you. Take care.

Hi

I have my surgery tomorrow 5 weeks radiation then tamoxifen. I (was) worried about taking it. Alot of you pointed out everyone is different to the SE. I spoke to my pharmacy they said many women at my pharmacy are on Tamoxifen with little SE. I will try it if side effects are too much get off.