ovary removal

7fergie
7fergie Member Posts: 19
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I've had a bilateral mastectomy and have 1 more chemo treatment to go. I will have radiation and hormonal treatment afterwards. Tumor ER and PR+. Even though chemo has started me into menopause and the hormonal therapy will, for the most part, finish what chemo started because of lowering the amount of estrogen or how the estrogen receptors act I am still very interested in getting my ovaries removed to cut down on the estrogen and chance of ovarian cancer even further. Hormonal treatment from what I've read won't 100% get rid of estrogen or 100% shut the receptors down. But having ovaries removed and not replacing them with HRT is supposed to increase the risk for heart attack and osteoporosis. There are medicines to reverse and help with osteoporosis. Besides aspirin what medicines protect against heart trouble? Having breast cancer I cannot take estrogen in any form so I do not have that available to me for heart and osteo. I don't want to take the chance of getting ovarian cancer but I don't want an increased risk of heart disease either. Need info.

Jeanette

Comments

  • miraclemom
    miraclemom Member Posts: 41
    #2
    Hi ,just happen to be going through postings and came across yours.Hope you are doing well.I also had a mastectomy with 6 months worth of chemo and was put on tamoxifen because my cancer is also hormone fed like yours.I asked my doctor before i started the hormone therpy if they went and did a hysterectomy on me would that make a difference so I wouldnt have to take the tamoxifen and he said why go through more surgery when this drug will do the same thing a hysterectomy will.So I started to take it and within afew months everything was going good the I started to bleed very heavily and hadnt had a period in almost a year.Well come to find out there was a tumor in my urtuis(spelled wrong) and it was feeding off the tamoxifen which caused the tumor to grow so I had to have a hysterectomy anyways.I dont mean to arlarm you but just to let you know my story and hope to help someone elsa from going through the same thing as me.I just take extra calicum and a mulit-vitium everyday but always check with your doctor before taking anything over the counter.My best wishes to you and if you have any questions please e-mail me at miraclemom12632001@yahoo.com or please check out the chat room here in this site you will be glad you did-alot of wonderful people there who have questions just like you.
    Lori
  • hummingbyrd
    hummingbyrd Member Posts: 950 Member
    #3
    Girl if it ain't one thing its another, eh? Sounds like you've got some good questions for your doctor.
    Like you I opted for the hysterectomy, take it all out, why worry about uterine or ovarian cancer!
    Sounds like you're on the right track w/ osteo and heart disease, course not every thing comes in tablet form. Calcium is good for bones, and aspirin reduces risk of death from heart attack and colon cancer....BUT....probably even more significant is regular exercise and a heart healthy diet!
    Let us know what the doc says, and congrats you've almost made it through the chemo!
    God bless, hummingbyrd.
  • rainyday
    rainyday Member Posts: 49
    #4
    Jeanette, I have been struggling to understand this one as well. My tumor was very highly (99%) ER/PR+. I asked why not take out the ovaries AND do the tamoxafen and got the same response as you, why go through another surgery. Truth is I am a darn sight less frightened about one more surgery than I am about getting ovarian or uterine cancer and especially given how high the receptor status is. It woudl seem that we should be eliminating as much estrogen as possible as quickly as possible. Please let me know what you doctor says, I will ask again at my next apointment. Good luck.
  • jake10
    jake10 Member Posts: 202
    #5
    I was told there was a risk of uterine cancer with the tomaxifin(spelling) and I had a family history of uterine cancer so my oncologist put me on Arimedex. This drug stops the synthisis of Estrogen. This seems better than Tomaxafen because that only blocks the estrogen.
    I don't however see any talk of the Arimedex on this site. Anyone out there on it but me??? Beth

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