tamoxifen and surgery

My understanding is that it takes 6 weeks for tamox to completely flush from your system and 6 weeks for it to fully ramp up too.

All surgery increases our risk for clots (the longer the surgery, the greater impact, so 6 hours under general anesthesia has more risk than 2 hours. Also, before and after any surgery, patients are generally not as active as usual). So you can also ask your surgeon about any concerns. When I had my hysterectomy this year, they put squeezers on my calves during surgery (I think that's standard). I'd previously asked to be tested for the blood clotting factors (why don't the docs screen for this?) and since I have one copy, my surgeon also put me on a low-dose of blood thinner during/after surgery. There are other things you can do to reduce your risk of clots: get up and walk around as early and as much as possible. Stay hydrated. I already have compression socks for when I fly, so when I got home I wore those around the house (until I was back at my usual level of activity--walking 1/2 hour every day).

Does tamox stop your periods? My MO says no. But she did say that it can interfere with the "signalling." I think this means that your body is still ovulating but you may not slough the cells and bleed. FWIW, I took a one-year break from tamox (due to pre-meno bone loss. Why don't the docs warn about this?) and my MO said, that overall, taking a break but continuing for a total of 5 years should not change my overall outcome. So taking a two-week break shouldn't be a concern.

Good luck with your surgery!