Tamoxifen Break

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Veeder14
Veeder14 Member Posts: 880
edited December 2020 in Hormonal Therapy - Before, During, and After

Hi All,

During the past month I've been having worsening GI symptoms to the point of not being able to eat very much or drink much liquids. I had an appointment with the MO yesterday (actually just the Nurse Practitioner), who suggested I take a 2 week break from the Tamoxifen to give my stomach a rest. I'm trying to decide if I should do that or not. Certainly not swallowing a pill that irritates my stomach would help in the short run, but I don't think this will solve the problem as I'm scheduled to take Tamoxifen for another 3 years.

Although, I had some stomach issues prior to taking Tamoxifen and took medication for it, I began taking the maximum amount of PPI medication ( with doctor approval) as soon as I noticed the daily pill was irritating my stomach. So now I feel like I can't take anymore of that type of medication to help my problem. I'm on a bland diet, try not to eat before laying down, etc., I do have a GI consult but only with a Nurse Practitioner via video this week.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.


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  • flashlight
    flashlight Member Posts: 698
    edited December 2020

    Hi Veeder14, I had terrible heartburn when I was on 20mg of Tamoxifen. I don't think a 2-week break is long enough for you to feel better or to see if it is the Tamoxifen. I had decreased my dose to 10mg and stayed on that for awhile. Last May I increased it to twice a day and I have been doing better on it. I don't know what med you are on, but if it is nexium that robs your bones of calcium. Make sure you talk about the side effects of the medication with the NP.

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  • Veeder14
    Veeder14 Member Posts: 880
    edited December 2020

    Hi flashlight,

    Thanks for your comments. I'm glad you are doing better. I'm on Protonics but I wonder if it looses it's effectiveness after awhile. This medication also removes the calcium from bones. I'm taking supplements. I'm sure it's from the Tamoxifen as when I originally started on Tamoxifen and after four months I had a very thickened uterine lining. So had surgery and was off the Tamoxifen for several months. My stomach healed in that time. Unfortunately, it started getting irritated when I started back on Tamoxifen.

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  • Salamandra
    Salamandra Member Posts: 1,444
    edited December 2020

    I had a very had time tolerating tamoxifen, though my GI issues eventually did improve. When my oncologist had me go on a reset/break, it was two months, not two weeks.

    Ultimately it didn't help me tolerate tamoxifen and I ended up on toremifene instead. I had some GI issues starting toremifene but not comparable in intensity to tamoxifen.

    If you haven't already tried different brands of tamoxifen, that is also something that might help (in addition to playing with timing and dose size).

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited December 2020

    Veeder14, Tamoxifen is actually good for bones. It is the Aromatase inhibitors that cause bone loss and they are a completely different class of drugs..

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