Fatigue and tamoxifen?

I finished rads at the end of Sept and started on Tamox immediately after.  The fatigue is pretty bad currently.  I'm pretty sure it's most likely due to the rads since it started while I was in treatment.  Also, I have a friend who told me that she felt this kind of unrelenting fatigue for about 6 months post rads, and she didn't take Tamox.  My own two cents is that our bodies are trying to heal after all they've been through, and just like when our kids are sick and want to sleep all day, sleep is the body's fastest road to renewal. Hang in there.

Just to throw my experience in.  I'm on Tamoxifen for almost a year....also very tired all the time, even when I have a good nights sleep.  My issue - no rads or chemo..so I can only blame it on the Tamoxifen.  

kle

Kle & Krissy,

My experience is the same ,no rads or no chemo, only tamoxifen and I am tired all the time.

Have been on tamoxifen for 6 months

Hugs

Viv

I am also more tired on tamoxofin and my sleep seems lighter with more dreams I wake up tired. Does this go away in time I've been on the medication for 4 months? Thanks Brendy

I am on Armidex and feel fatigued too.  Exercise does help but I very rarely feel like I have had a good nights sleep.  I am on effexor (75 mg) to combat hotflashes, immovane for sleep as Armidex causes insomnia for me....being shoved into menopause at age 42 didnt help either!!!

 I am post menopausal, had ovaries out last year....3 years out of treatment, 4 years since diagnosis.

All in all I am happy to have a drug to help with preventing reoccurance even if it makes you tired.  I guess I have adjusted to my "new normal" at age 45 and I am alive and NED.

To all you ladies struggling with s/e's especially joint pain--Gloucosomine Chondrontin (sp?) helped me alot!

Michele

Hi all! I stumbled upon this forum while I was searching for ways to combat fatigue.

Even though I have been taking tamoxifen since Feb. of 2007 I was beginning to think I was using it as an excuse or making it up or something.

Nope.

I went through a time in the beginning where I was just exhausted and could fall asleep in my food - so long as I could stand to smell or see food given the extreme food aversions.

Now I am just tired. I have permanent circles under my eyes and of course I have gained a lot of weight since the only food I seem to be able to get around is "comfort food". The gain of weight doesn't help the fatigue. The bad nutrition doesn't help. The lack of exercise doesn't help. The depression because of all of this doesn't help.

Okay...so what do we do about it?

I'm tired of being tired.

Nice to have read your posts! We all seem to be in the same boat. All we need is a paddle.....

Wow, this is so comforting to hear everyone going through this fatigue. I started Tamoxifen in Sept. 2 months after radiation. I waited because I hate taking medications and was very worried about the mood changes that can occur with hormonal treatment and now research shows that the anti-depressants they used to give to help - decrease the effectiveness of Tamoxifen. I was also scared of the very small but real risk of stroke and uterine cancer. But I have 2 children 5 and 9 and I felt I needed to do all that I could to win the battle completely.

I was starting to feel great before the Tamoxifen, my ovaries were kicking in gear again (lost period due to chemo that ended in April) and my hair was covering my head at least, and I had most of my energy back. And now it takes tremendous effort to get up - from anywhere - I just want to stay where ever I am and not move. I'm not thinking clearly and feel foggy - almost like the chemo days but not as extreme.

As soon as the hair came back, I didn't look sick and so basically everyone expected me to be back to my old self. My neighbors who were wonderful during chemotherapy disappeared and my family who lives 12 hours away stopped coming down. I feel completely overwhelmed and off-track from where I had been through-out my entire diagnosis and treatment. I was so energized to get through it all and put on a good face for myself, my kids and family, and it worked. But now I just want to sink into the couch and sleep!

I desperately want to stop taking this drug but I am terrified of stopping. When looking at the treatments the one that increases my survival rate the most is taking Tamoxifen.  

I feel better at least that I am not alone in my fatigue. 

This is my first post and it feels great to write and share with people who truly KNOW what you're saying.

Thanks:) 

I`m on Tamoxifen, started in April and I am so so so tired all the time.  Doesn`t matter if I go to bed at 8:30 and sleep the whole night.  I just feel so exhausted and that doesn`t help when I have a 4 yr old and 6 yr old with loads of energy.  I find that I am very tired in the mornings and then again at supper I can`t stop yawning from about 4pm until bedtime. 

My doctor said the radiation would clip a small portion of my lung...do you think that might have happened to you and that is why you notice some change in breathing?

Diagnosis: 9/2009, DCIS, Stage0

Last month I convinced my Oncologist to let me stop Tamoxifen for a month to see if this was the source of my overwhelming fatigue. I really wasn't sure what I'd find out. But about two weeks after stopping it I began to feel like myself again and the energy returned. I am back on it - I have another year left. It has helped me tremendously to know this is the source of my fatigue.

Barbi811- I have been looking for a thread about fatigue.  I think it is the tamoxifen as well.  I blamed my bmx/LD flap recon surgery recovery. No rads or chemo.   I have a very busy stressful family life that I blamed as well, yet  I have been dealing for years with my disabled DH not feeling so tired.  I thought my recovery from this big surgery was complete for the most part, awaiting exchange surgery.  I work full time as a nurse 12 hr dayshifts.  I come home and just barely can stay awake to say hi to my family then off to bed.  Fall asleep watching TV, never finishing a show!  I feel it's important to take this drug to decrease recurrance, (never want to deal with this again) but the fatgue is the worst!  I really have to work at my PT and try to take a walk, at least on my days off.  Just started taking in May, was hoping it would improve over time. I take my Tami in the morning, yet still get hot flashes at night, as well as night sweats...ugh!

hi!

I was on faslodex for a year and a half with many side effects. The worst was shortness of breath which got so bad I asked my doc to take me off of it. He switched me to tamoxifen. The side effects after 3 mo are a lot less but yes I am TIRED. Sleepy by 1pm and have to nap. Then I can't really get going again til the next day. The hot flashes are about the same so far. I'm hungry too and get a little seasick now and again. But it's still easier than faslodex. My markers went down more dramatically after one month on tamoxifen. I do sleep better and have been able to get off my antidepressant and tramadol.

I switched to Tam three years after rads. Not tired ever. I sleep 7 - 8 hours at night and do everything I want during the day, including exercising at least an hour a day.