Femara and depression

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jamjar62
jamjar62 Member Posts: 135
in Breast Cancer #1
I haven't been on this board for years. Been busy getting on with my life!

I have been on Femara for a little over 3 years now. For around 3 years I have suffered from depression that resists all treatment. I have suffered from depression since the birth of my first child but was always able to keep it under control with meds.

Recently I was thinking about how long I've been I've been on Femara and how long my depression has been hard to keep in control.

I say ALL that to ask if anyone else has had issues with depression while on Femara? I see my onc in 2 weeks and I'm going to discuss it with her and see if I can go off of it for a time to see if it helps.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Blessings,
Karen

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  • jphilpo
    jphilpo Member Posts: 177
    #2
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    femara depression
    Karen, I absolutely suffered from depression while taking femara. Unlike you, I never struggled with it before this drug, so it was awful! So... along with bone and joint pain as symptoms also, my onc. switched me to tamoxifen. I think it is better. I still have my "moments", but don't we all? I take a tramadol pill at night to help with the bone pain and that helps also.

    Blessings to you, too,

    Jean
  • SIROD
    SIROD Member Posts: 2,194 Member
    #3
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    Depression on AI
    I used Femara about 24 months and Arimidex for 5 years. Never experience depression with either drug.

    Doris
  • jamjar62
    jamjar62 Member Posts: 135
    #4
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    jphilpo said:

    femara depression
    Karen, I absolutely suffered from depression while taking femara. Unlike you, I never struggled with it before this drug, so it was awful! So... along with bone and joint pain as symptoms also, my onc. switched me to tamoxifen. I think it is better. I still have my "moments", but don't we all? I take a tramadol pill at night to help with the bone pain and that helps also.

    Blessings to you, too,

    Jean

    depression
    Hi Jean,

    I also have the joint pain. It's terrible. I feel like an old lady!

    I was on Tamoxifen for 5 years so that's not an option for me. After chemo and 5 years of Tamoxifen, I was menopausal so that's when my onc switched me to Femara.

    I forgot to call my mail-in script for Femara so I actually ran out of it. I'm going to do a little experiment and not take it until I see my onc in 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference.

    Karen
  • natly15
    natly15 Member Posts: 1,941
    #5
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    Karen I've been on Femara
    Karen I've been on Femara over a year and so far so good, however, Arimidex did to me what Femara is doing to you, it put me into a spiral of deep depression and I stopped on my own. It was so bad that I knew I could not continue on it, because after all, we do this treatment so we can have some quality of life and armidex was stealing it from me. I've also dealt with depression in the past but nothing was helping when I was on arimidex. Our bodies all react differently and what works for one doesnt necessarily work the same way for another. I'm sure your Onc can come up with a solution. Best Wishes.
  • lynn1950
    lynn1950 Member Posts: 2,570
    #6
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    Experienced major depression
    Experienced major depression with Arimidex. I had some depression before, but nothing like what I experienced two years ago. I am still on Arimidex and I take anti-depressants. Worse than the depression right now is the joint pain. I wish I didn't have to take it. xoxoxo Lynn
  • ohilly
    ohilly Member Posts: 441
    #7
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    me, too
    Karen, I ABSOLUTELY concur that the Femara is causing your depression. This happened to me, too; there is a history of depression in my family and I have had bouts of depression in my life, but never as severe as what happened to me on the Femara. I know it was not related to having cancer or any other stressors in my life because I would just get depressed and crying for absolutely no reason. Later I did some research and they say that because of the rapid change in estrogen levels (I went from having an estrogen positive tumor to having almost no estrogen in my body because of the Femara overnight), Femara puts you into what is similar to a Postpartum depression.

    Having said all this, I would strongly urge you to explore other alternatives other than simply getting of an aromatase inhibitor, because the AIs are there to protect us from recurrence. I was on a combination of Lexapro and Buspar for about two years which helped: I have now gotten off all anti-depressants, and am doing just fine. Although I am still on Femara, I think my body has now had time to get used to the estrogen change. Also, maybe a different Aromatase inhibitor or even Tamoxifen will react better for you.

    Funny how no doctor ever warned me that Femara could cause depression. All they talked about was joint pain.

    Best of luck,

    Ohilly

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