Arimidex Angst

Yes.
I have been on it for 2 years and feel good. I take it at night and have no obvious side effects. Not everyone does. I was very nervous because so many women suffer with it but I have been fortunate. Hopefully you will, too.

Roseann

disneyfan2008 said:

sorry you are anxious
I was taken off tamox last month and just got back from Dr but still not putting me on anything else..I am not sure if Armidex is like Tamox..perhaps that is one of my options in month or so...

I hope you find some info here from others...


Denise

Sorry to tell you I had a
Sorry to tell you I had a lot of problems on arimidex. Joint pain is now full blown arthritis in most of my joints. See your doc right away and not wait as long as I did. Maybe it could have slowed it down for me as I hope it will for you.

My prayers are with you. Diana

Joint Pain
I am sorry to tell you that I had to stop taking arimidex. I believe that it was exacerbating my arthritis. I took it for appoximately two weeks, but noticed a lot of problems in my hands. I have arthritis in my knees and hands. The problems with my hands prior to taking arimidex was minimal. In two weeks I could hardly open a bottle of water. I called my onco and was told to stop taking it and see what happened. My hands started to feel much better. I was switched to Tamoxifin and seem to be tolerating it better since I have been on it for a couple of weeks now.

No problem
Well, I was on the cousin of arimidex (exemestane AKA aromosin) with pretty much no problems after I discovered I had a vitamin D3 deficiency. As soon as that was corrected I had no problems with inflamed toes (initial problem) that were certainly a problem when uncorrected. I'm an active person and like walking, exercising, and the like. Vitamin D3 deficiency is quite common in cancer survivors and is easily correctable. Research is continuing about whether it is a result or a by-product of having cancer. But it can work better than ibruprofen at calming inflamation when you are low on it.

Low D3 is not the only cause of joint pain on this med however. Genetics also plays a big part in who can tolerate the aromatase inhibitors like arimidex. Researchers are just now starting to do experiments to see how to easily tell in advance who will be able to take it with no joint pain and who will have to forgo this option. I would expect that in 8 years or so they will have a simple blood test to check for it. But for now, we have to take it and see. You just may be fine. If not, talk to your doctor about checking your vitamin D3 level. If he or she won't, get another doctor that actually is up on his research readings on cancer and vitamin D3 and inflamation problems. If vitamin D3 doesn't fix the problem, you can try one of the other aromatase inhibitors. If none work satisfactorily, you are probably going to have to try another kind of treatment.

cabbott said:

No problem
Well, I was on the cousin of arimidex (exemestane AKA aromosin) with pretty much no problems after I discovered I had a vitamin D3 deficiency. As soon as that was corrected I had no problems with inflamed toes (initial problem) that were certainly a problem when uncorrected. I'm an active person and like walking, exercising, and the like. Vitamin D3 deficiency is quite common in cancer survivors and is easily correctable. Research is continuing about whether it is a result or a by-product of having cancer. But it can work better than ibruprofen at calming inflamation when you are low on it.

Low D3 is not the only cause of joint pain on this med however. Genetics also plays a big part in who can tolerate the aromatase inhibitors like arimidex. Researchers are just now starting to do experiments to see how to easily tell in advance who will be able to take it with no joint pain and who will have to forgo this option. I would expect that in 8 years or so they will have a simple blood test to check for it. But for now, we have to take it and see. You just may be fine. If not, talk to your doctor about checking your vitamin D3 level. If he or she won't, get another doctor that actually is up on his research readings on cancer and vitamin D3 and inflamation problems. If vitamin D3 doesn't fix the problem, you can try one of the other aromatase inhibitors. If none work satisfactorily, you are probably going to have to try another kind of treatment.

No problems - Vitamin D?
I've had no problems. I was scared to start it, too. In fact, I put it off until I returned from a visit to my kids. No problems so far and it's been 4 months.

Interesting about Vitamin D, tho. I was Vit D deficient prior to diagnoses and I did not pay attention to it. I was very sporadic about taking Vitamin D, primarly because of the size of the tablets and because I really didn't think it was such a big deal. Got cancer and got serious about getting it up as both my oncologist and primary care physician got on my back (rightfully so). Now that I'm within normal range (did 50,000 IU weekly for a month and am now religiously taking 2000 IU daily - AND sitting in the sun for a brief time now and then), I wonder if that's why I'm not having side effets on Arimidex. I had never heard about it effecting joint pain on meds, just that it was important for your immune system. Interesting

Suzanne