Warning: Feminist, anti-patriarchal question on hormonal therapy

Lea, c'mon...do tell...which drug are you talking about, so we can all tell you which side effects we have/have not experienced.

HOWEVER, if your post was meant to be a rant and only a rant, I totally understand because I CAN RANT...LOL. In that case, please disregard this post and please carry on.

Lea, glad to see a feminist rant on here. You make valid points and had me chuckling besides. Please do carry on!

Let’s go one step further...would men put up with the primary surgical option being to cut off their penises and replace them with heavy, numb, silicone implants that have zero functionality?

Lea - No lie - I was thinking the exact same thing last night as I was massaging one of my BMX scar--- this cracks me up....omg where the mind takes us...

I'll carry on over here... :-) ;-)

I might gently suggest we encourage our daughters and granddaughters to go into medicine. Did I not read recently that there are now more women than men entering medical school? Change will come with the next generation.

I'm so glad you piped up Traveltext! My daughter (Radiation Therapist) said Tamoxifen side effects for men are pretty awful. This was in response to me complaining about the potential side effects before I went on it. So far 6 weeks in it hasn't been too bad for me but I get the op's rant. Women's sexual side effects often get minimised by Drs. I hope they come up with stuff that's better for more people but the fact is...us women need estrogen but it feeds some types of cancer so the only way to stop this is anti hormonals which have side effects.

Men with prostate cancer often take anti-hormonal drugs also. The often end up impotent and incontinent, so I guess they put up with a lot too.

MelissaDall: Thank you for pointing this out. Men with prostate cancer who get surgery often land up wearing diapers, not having orgasms, being unable to have erections without artificial assistance, and have brain fog and loss of muscle mass plus osteoporosis from androgen deprivation therapy and hip fractures, not to mention depression from all of this. Thirty thousand men died of prostate cancer last year, often with painful bone metastases, not a nice way to go, Sadly, starting in 2011 government committees trying to save money (under the guise of avoiding unnecessary treatment side effects) decided to encourage docs to stop screening for PCA (and boy were they ready to comply!) , even in high risk men such as African Americans and vets exposed to cancerogenic Agent Orange, and it was not until last year that a modest move back to at least some screening was revived.

Ladies, we suffer, and it sucks, but pretending that men are not also caught up battling diseases with bad side effects and no good drugs, and fighting for government research funding, is not going to help women. I have seen way more pink ribbons and happy-faced marche for BC cures than I have for any men's health in recent decades ( other than HIV) or prostate cancer, and somehow women losing boobs or fighting BC get more coverage and sympathy in media than emasculated men with bone mets from prostate CA.

We are all in this together! Cancer and its treatment are awful, for both sexes, whether delivered by male or female doctors, but I am grateful that thanks to research and innovation, we at least have more options now than we did just a few decades ago, and hope scientists will continue to innovate.

I say this as someone who just woke up with Arimidex-induced soaked sheets, a sore Biozorb site, and a husband who is mentally readying himself to go to the urologist today to talk about major prostate surgery and treatments that might lead to the need for budgeting for Depends, not to mention loss of his profession, which is highly dependent on his brain power.

I hate the "pink ribbons and happy-faced marches" described above. I often feel that there actually isn't that much sympathy for BC because people assume that it's easily curable and somehow not a "real" cancer.

Just want to chime in about PC. My father has it, he is 90 and has been treated with surgery, radiation, and hormonal treatments since it became metastatic about 4 years ago. I can do first hand comparison to the same treatments in BC. In my opinion, PC surgery is more impactful than mastectomy (after all, mastectomy is not invasive and apart from appearance there usually are no issues.) Radiation is also more impactful because it often causes rectal and other issues. Hormonal therapy has all the same side effects as women get with BC (hot flashes, low energy, bones deterioration, etc.) So the guys don't get it easy either.

Traveltext, so sorry, you should be offered reconstruction. Why should it matter what sex you are? It sure helped me emotionally I want to erase ever having had a mastectomy from my mind. I want to look and feel the way I did before cancer.

You gals/guys are so brave to decline the hormone blockers. I respect that. I'm not one to believe much that doctors say and I often question run-of-the-mill medicine, but in this case, I'm going to choose to believe that my breast cancer was caused by ER/PR positive factors and that it will help keep it away if I block these hormones, and I'm afraid that my cancer will come back if I don't take the hormone blockers.

Travel, I've been taking Femara for about a year. I don't feel any side effects. Well, I have "cold flashes" instead of hot flashes. Odd. And my bones are probably deteriorating. That is one of the downsides with Femara. But I will soon be taking a med for bone strengthening. Tamoxifen actually strengthen bones; however, blood clot formation is the downside with Tamoxifen. I'm not willing to risk that.

All of my breast cancer care people/doctors/nurses were women, except for one, who was a radiation technician. My daughter has a career/master's degree in something else, but she is looking into studying cancer markers (not sure exactly what that is.)

Meow, it didn't worry me at the time since I was just so ready to finish treatment that I didn't think of the aesthetics. But looking at things today, and that's pretty much how I look now, minus the burn mark, I'm thinking I could look better. I've never for a minute compared the physical importance of my chest to that of a woman's, and I'm certainly glad that my situation doesn't come with the added cultural baggage that a female's breasts incur. However, the funny part is that I've met lots of bc men and they are all quick to show off their chest scars. That and engage in a big man hug. So, I feel part of a brotherhood of rare guys and that's not really a bad thing.

MO-Beth, it didn't take long to find the Cialis ads on Youtube. Priapism, an erection lasting more that four hours, now that could be a painful nuisance. ouch

Here's a very funny spoof ad:

16 hours ago pupmom wrote:

And I've never heard that 50% of users can't tolerate them.

Icietla writes:

Nor have I. I understand many never even have filled the first prescription therefor. I understand those who get prophylactic endocrine treatment tend to be less compliant than those in adjuvant treatment for cancer. I understand those early stage breast cancer patients having diseased nodes tend to be more compliant than those with node-negative disease state/s. I understand those around either end of the spectrum of patient ages are more likely to be noncompliant. I understand many of those who attribute bothersome side effects to their endocrine treatment cannot fairly rule out that they are experiencing (continuing or worsening) side effects or aftereffects of radiation treatment and/or chemotherapy administered prior to their endocrine therapy. I understand that medicine/s expense (for all the medicines prescribed for any given patient) seems to be a factor bearing on non/compliance. I have memory issues (unrelated to my cancer and its treatment) that could impact compliance; I understand many others have memory issues that could impact their compliance. I understand many women decide to have babies instead of (starting or continuing) endocrine treatment. I understand (without understanding) many are afraid of being "thrown into menopause." I understand many are "terrified" of "the horrible side effects," vague reference/s to which they have seen on the internet.

As we all know very well, as to any sort/s of medical advice, there is always a great deal of noncompliance among patients. Despite their suffering ill effects, many will not quit wearing high-heeled shoes. Many pre-diabetic and diabetic persons will not comply with dietary guidance. Because of noncompliance, we have drug-resistant bacteria. There are many "opioid-associated" deaths from overdosing and/or combining the medicine with some other drug/s, maybe with driving too, but as far as I am aware, nobody has ever died from taking (just) the opioid dose prescribed them, used only as advised/directed/prescribed by their prescribing Physician. Because of noncompliance as to birth control ordered, there are tragic birth defects from Accutane. Most having substance abuse problems will not quit their substance abuse unless/until they must quit it. Etc.

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>>Would an increase in heart disease, stroke, cancer of the reproductive organs, joint pain and broken bones all be accepted as part of the bargain [...]<<

Icietla writes:

As far as I know, increased risks of those health conditions go with getting older, anyway. Is getting older not acceptable?

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>>Would strategies to improve adherence to taking the drugs emphasize "education of patients, assessment of the ability of patients to understand their disease and related recurrence factors, and providing adequate support and strategies for good self-management?"<<

Icietla writes:

Certainly. If the Health Care Providers were doing an adequate job that way, we would not need to do it here. We would not get questions like -- My tumor was excised, so I am cured, so why is this medicine (or chemo course, or radiation course) recommended? -- From outcomes data is predicted only a small incremental benefit at five years, so why is this medicine (or chemo course, or radiation course) recommended? -- I know someone who had breast cancer and seems to be doing fine without this medicine (or chemo course, or radiation course), so why is it recommended for me? -- My cancer was not of the most aggressive grade, so why is this aggressive treatment (medicine, or chemo course, or radiation course) recommended? -- My OncotypeDx testing says I am at low recurrence risk, so why is this medicine recommended? – My mother did not have a BRCA mutation, so I have no risk factors for breast cancer, so why is this medicine (or chemo course, or radiation course) recommended? -- I am postmenopausal, so I have no estrogen in my system, so why is this medicine recommended?