Hormone Therapy hot flashes

Jpsweld,

Went through the same thing for two years, as did Digger Don.  It took over a year more for the hormones to leave my system.  I've been off of Lupron for two years at this point, and the Hot Flashes have stopped.  They had my Total Testosterone knocked down to 17 for two years.  I am now back up in the middle of the normal range.  I'm some where around 450 total testosterone.  The free testosterone is around 41.  My Chemo Oncologist looks at the "Free T".  He is pleased that I'm back to that number and the PSA is staying below 0.5.  The lessening of the hot flashes happened slowly, and the comeback of the testosterone was also a slow return.  The muscle strength and mass I lost is coming back.  I continued to lift weights and ride my indoor Spinner Bike every day, and still do so.  I was a road cyclist and my "race horse legs and butt" ( as my wife calls them) have returned.  My biceps are back to the hardness I had prior to the treatments.  In fact my shirt sleeves are getting rather snug over the biceps.  So, bear with it.  This will all go away after you finish the treatments.  My PSA was at 69 when diagnoised, I had no symptoms.   As with Digger Don, My PSA went to 0.2, and then down to<0.010,  After being off of the Lupron for two years, My PSA has come up a little, but my doctors are very happy with where I am now, as compared to where I was 4 years ago.  PSA is now a 0.47.  I was concerned, but the doctors aren't in a hurry to do further trestmments, because the rate of increase has been cut in half this last set of tests. They want to try and keep my PSA under 2.0.  Next move is intermittent Lupron.  I hope I don't have to do that.  They are talking plans of treatment 10 and up to 15 years down the road.  

So, hang in there.  This stuff works and will help you.  As far as ways to help the side effects-----Wear as few clothes as possible, as was said, ice water, and I have a remote control electric fan in the bed room.  Of course my wife's and my Hot flashes were never in sinc. Ha! Ha!  But, we have adjusted.   I must admit, I still wake up, now and then, at night, sweating.  Doctors says some of that is just the normal aging process, as your testosterone lowers as you age.  But, it's only about once a week, and even less as the weather gets colder for winter.  Mine tend to hit in early evening right now.  Especially right after supper.  

Oh, and my full head of blonde hair is back.  Even as the testosterone level has come back up, my hair loss / thinning has really slowed down.  Just another positive to look at.  During my treatments I only had to shave about once a week, now I'm back to every other day.  

Best of luck.

Love, Peace and God Bless

Will

Hey all,  I havent been on this site much since I started my trial therepy of Lupron + Zitega (RP surgery to follow after 180 days then RT).  I am stage 4 locally advanced and my PSA was 69 the day I started.  Day 22 and I am sub 6.  Glad to see it is working.  I have been side effect free ( at least I think I am) however I think I am getting my first dose of hot flashes.  I am trying to figure out if they are just my blanket and/or (thin) down coat or a hot flash.  Not nearly as what was desribed by JSP or DIGG so I am curious to see if any others chime in.  No sweats just getb a wave of being really warm.

Is there a certain time after treamne t starts when these things happen?  What about fatigue ?  Is 3 weeks in too soon?

Thanks

Jpsweld said:

Thanks Doran

Thanks Doran

So you say go to bed with no clothes then the sheets would be soaked. I use t shirts and extra towels and whatever.

 

Doran did they do radiation too? Can you give me any tips or advice on that?

 

 

Jpsweld,

I had severe night sweats, but from Lymphoma, not PCa.

My wife bought some beach blankets, and I slept on those.  We put a large bath towel over my pillow nightly.  

Between the two of those, my bed remained dry.  I'd sometimes get up in the night and rinse my hair in the sink, since it would be soppy wet, then dry it off, and back to bed. We didn't even know that I was sick at the time.  Few things cause night sweats.  Hormones, as from menopause or HT, and Lymphoma are about the only causes of severe night sweats, but we were unaware then,

 A couple of beach blankets made dealing with it relatively easy,

max

I've been on Lupron for ten months now. I was not given Casodex initially so I went thru the "Lupron surge" for the first ten days and enjoyed seemingly boundless sexual energy, then settled down and began the hot flashes and mood swings. My RP was about 14 months ago and I had 39 Tx adjuvant radiation a year later and just finished that last month.  I was T3B N0M0 with SVI, G8 and PSA=25. Lupron has held my PSA down to .03 for all of this year. Next PSA will be in January, along with my next 6 month Lupron injection.

The worst part of HT for me has been hot flashes and mood swings. Terrible mood swings, compounded by my wife's stage 4 lymphoma diagnosis around the same time.  I begged my RO for help and he prescribed magestrol, which is synthetic progesterone, but my GP said no due to possible blood clots.  After much research and additional begging I was finally prescribed Venlafaxine 75mg every morning which has minimized daytime hot flashes. I would say it has reduced their frequency, duration and intensity by around 50%.

Venlafaxine is an antidepressant known as Effexor. It's use for hot flashes is "off label" and I had to accept a disgnosis of Major Depressive Disorder for it to be prescribed.  Whatever it takes, I guess. Considering how moody I had become that's not far from the truth. I was still having terrible hot flashes in the evenings, after dinner and in bed at night. I keep a fan next to my "Sheldon seat" on the sofa and next to my side of the bed. A remote control helps, as mentioned earlier. It usually only takes a minute to cool me down. Sleeping on towels sounds good too but they tend to become lumpy. Instead I just wash the sheets often.

Subsequently I was prescribed Gabapentin (Neurontin) six caps daily for another condition, which pretty much knocks me out at night. The hot flashes are now minimal.  We live in Florida and keep the AC very cool... low seventies which also helps.  Fortunately I was spared most of the other side effects of HT... no weight gain or man boobs, though I lost some body hair from the HT + RT.  Brain fog has been terrible though, especially combined with the Gaba and my wife's chemo brain. We joke about us having one whole brain between the two of us.

I suspect that a low dose of Venlafaxine and a little Gaba in the evening would probably be helpful for anyone who is willing to venture into the pharmaceutical realm. But most doctors don't take hints though and you have to be your own advocate and beg for this stuff. For me it has worked very well.