FEMARA

Quinne, my MO recommended zometa shots every 6 months, not for bones as much as for reducing recurrance even by a small %. I have a question for you: did you have any surgery or only radiation and letrozole?

Thank you honeybair. I am on my 10th month of letrozole and I can say I am feeling better than couple months ago. I checked my medication and it is made in India. I wonder if there is any difference on where meds are made.

quinnie, why were you recommended AI? My MO told me if I was node negative, I woudn't be recommended letrozole.

quinne, my previous MO told me that with my case of small cancer (3mm) in the breast, if I didn't have positive nodes, I could have skipped anti-hormonal treatments. Or I would have benefited less than 2%. Since I am node positive she recommended letrozole that got carried to other MO. I guess depends what is the recurrence rate for each individual. If your read Femara's disclosure, other than the usual side effects, can cause another type of cancer so I guess each of us weights the risks. https://www.femara.com/

The most serious side effects seen with FEMARA are bone effects (fractures, decreased bone density and osteoporosis) and increases in cholesterol. Other common side effects seen with FEMARA include joint pain, nausea, weight decrease, vaginal irritation, and pain in the extremities. Other important less commonly reported side effects include blood clots, other cancers, stroke, heart attack and endometrial cancer.

Lilly, if I understand correctly, your MO was saying that with a 3mm tumor and no nodal involvement, no anti-hormone therapy would be necessary. That's reasonable because with that diagnosis, your risk from the cancer would be quite low. But that recommendation was specific to your situation; it wasn't a generalized recommendation for anyone who is node negative. Once it was discovered that you had a positive node, your MO's recommendation changed and he advised that you take Femara. I would expect that even if you had remained node negative, but if the tumor was just slightly larger, 5mm or 6mm, for example, Femara would have been recommended. So the original thought that you could skip anti-hormone therapy wasn't just because you were node negative, but was because your tumor was so small. Most women with tumors that are 5mm or larger do go onto either Tamoxifen or an AI, even if node negative.

As an FYI, here are the NCCN treatment guidelines for node negative, ER+, HER2-:

Ive only been on this medication a little over a month..and I AM MISERABLE....I have gained about 10 lbs., I am tired all the time and have to nap quite often and the first time I took it during the day...I had horrible mood swings during the day...I thought I needed to go be commited...ugh...

And I have horrible memory problems....I CRS...(cant remember S H I---).....and I looked at the side effects of this med and it can increase cholesterol levels...and I already have calcifications of a main artery...I am getting off this med and going back to Aramidex.....what was my oncologist thinking...OMG...I am miserable!

Hi! I’ve been on Femara for 11 months now. Aside from a lot of stiffness , has anyone experienced tailbone pain? I’ve been been having on and off pain in the tail bone and left butt area which sometimes radiates down my thigh.

thanks @cm2020 ! I googled it, and i really hope it’s sciatica.

Happy Monday Ladies! Barely woke up this morning from a cricket who made it inside the house last night and has been non-stop until 2 am. LOL!

I feel that taking the letrozole at night is working better for me. In 3 hours I feel some hot flashes. A nurse told me between 2-4 hours after taking the medication most people feel hot flashes. The rest of them may be milder and I don't feel since I am asleep.

Mircann, how many years have you been in AI? From your signature, it seems that you had surgery 5 years ago.

Annie60....In reading your issues with tinnitus it makes me wonder about vertigo. I have noticed over the last week or so that sometimes I just get dizzy for apparently no reason. The first time it happened it was very bad and I had to stay in bed. Since then it has happened for just brief moments (less than 3 min) and isn't as bad. I never thought to relate it to letrozole, but I wonder. The stiffness and pain went away after about a month (yoga helps so much) so if this is related to letrozole I hope it goes away too. I will just monitor and mention it to my MO when I see her in about a month.

I do hope the tinnitus goes away! My gosh we deal with enough without adding additional nonsense to the pile. Also, what is masking that you are using to help the ringing? I feel like I should know but I have no clue (I may have missed a post if you mentioned it before, if so, i am sorry).

Annie, have you tried acupuncture? It may help. It is important to find a good acupunturist.

Annie, most of the large hospitals have their Integrative Therapies. In case you don't go to one, I would start by asking a nurse for recommendations for an acupuncturist that is specialized in cancer patients. I hope you are feeling better these days.

I just take my femara every other day. I think it would be too hard to split it.
I’d be interested to know if anyone is taking it every third day. I know it has a long half life but I’m wondering if any of your doctors have approved the every third day regiment. That would be even better for the side effects. Since I’m stage IV I’m a little hesitant to even ask my MO about it. Any thoughts?

Faith (in the future).

I'm not on Femara, I've tryed Aromasin and I'm on Arimidex every other day. I read on other threads not to split the dose for the AIs because it won't be as effective as full dose every other day. My Dr. also told me to try every other day, and I didn't ask why he chose that because I had already read about it.

Thank you everyone, it sounds like I should try every other day. I said "I can split the pill" in front of my dr and he didn't say don't do that, but he also had that expression that said "oh no, another know it all patient who isn't going to follow directions" on his face. Don't get me wrong, he was very pleasant and willing to answer questions, but his expression said it all. I kind of got on a bandwagon about this whole one size fits all treatment dosage, everybody gets the same dose and how I think that is not good medicine so I may have offended him.