thinking of quitting

Salamandra,

Which SERM are you taking. I did well with Toremifene, but my physician left the practice and my new physician will not RX Toremifene.

Thank you all for the wonderdul information and input. It's such a puzzle for all if us. Glad I have somewhere to post and ask for information.

As for the one that asked for SE- (Letrozole) Diizzines, Joint paint, Cognitive delay. Just a feel of being about 90 years old, and I'm 55.

Such a struggle in what is right and what we can live with.

Thanks again for all the information and suppoert!!

Thank you, VioletKali. That makes sense about the Tamoxifen and the Prozac. Were you offered to take Lexapro or any other SSRI instead if you decided to take the Tamoxifen? I was offered that and took it. I really did not want to go off the Prozac (I have been taking it since I was in middle school and it has worked VERY well for me). I tried Lexapro when I went on Prozac and didn't notice a lot of difference. Everyone is different, though.

I am not happy about the long wait to get this Lupron out of my system. I am still getting hot flashes, although it has only been two weeks since I should have gotten another shot. I am very eager to heal these awful things!

Peridot-

I had been on Prozac for 12+ years at the time. My depression was severe, and I refused to risk my mental health.

VioletKali -

Thank you for the reply. I understand about the depression. I did not want to stop Prozac, either, and was ready to refuse Tamoxifen. I gave it a try since my oncologist kept pushing it with the Lexapro and thought everything was fine. Apparently not since that's when all these fissure issues began.

erin-t...have yin ever tried Relizen for hot flashes! It works and its safe! Good luck

Hi DC,

My oncotype score is a 19 as well. I am curious if you did chemo? This is very new to me and I am wondering what you did because it seems we have some similarities in regards to our diagnosis

Hi all,

I took Tamoxifen from Sept 2019 to Feb. 2020. I also take Effexor (this directly helps with the side effects). In Feb. 2020, I switched to Toremifene as my hands were unusable on Tamoxifen due to serious pain. Now I am here to ask about weight gain. I have always been in shape. I did marathons and an Ironman and now I don't even recognize my body. I have gained 15 pounds all around my waist and thighs. I don't fit into any of my clothes except for my few pants I bought at this size.

So this leads my whining to.... Has anyone had this type of weight gain and if so did anything help? I work out 5-6 times a week and watch my diet. Feeling really blue about this.

Thank you in advance.

Verder14 and no longer docile- I was wondering if you’ve tried interval fasting. I don’t take any AIs (am 63 and stooped HRT at diagnosis so opted not to) and not as nearly as active as you both, but have found interval fasting in combination with eating relatively healthy food (limiting sugar and simple carbs but not going so far as to eliminate them, drinking as close to a gallon of water/herb tea daily as I can manage, and keeping to around 1,500 calories per day) is very effective for me for weight loss. If you haven’t given this a try yet hopefully you can get good results too.

Hi nolongerdocile,

I'm glad to see a toremifene sister! I also failed tamoxifen (for me it was basically sedating) and felt like I had to exert some serious pressure to get my doc to even consider toremifene. Was it the same for you or did your doc actually suggest it?

I definitely gained weight through this whole cancer thing but I honestly can't say what was from what - between the death of a parent, the cancer diagnosis, the hormonal treatment, and quarantine within about a year and a half... I know I was stress eating so I don't know how much is fair of me to put on the drug. I am using the keto diet to lose weight and it is working so far. But I have more than 15lbs to lose and was definitely not in as good shape as you were to start!

Do you feel like you're still physically in shape and can do the things you want your body to be able to do?

It makes sense to me that these hormonal drugs would impact weight and body composition but I'm not really aware of any decent research about it or whether it's possible to do anything. But my cancer center had an integrative treatment wing and I think they might try to be supportive on an issue like that - that might be worth investigating?