premenopause and tamox

lindatn said:

I have been on Tamoxifen for two years and hate the drug buttttt Arimidex is new, all tests have been done by the drug company, remember what is going on with the Cox-2 drugs at present. Arimidex also causes a high risk of strokes same as tamoxifen, in exchange for endom cancer risk increasing with tamoxifen where a hysterectomy can limit that worry but amimidex causes bone loss, tamoxifen gives a degree of potection. The bone builders you need to take with arimidex cause another kind of cancer risk. So what do we do,try to take good care of ourselves with diet, rest, and the good Lord. Not sure one drug is better then the other.I wonder when tamoxifen came out how long it was before they knew of the increase risk of endom cancer? Merry Christmas and God Bless Linda

Hi linda,
Boy you said it...what are we to do????? Like you said..exercise,eating correctly and hope we are doing the best we can with our bodies.
I will say though that I remember reading about a study that said now they are not sure that tamoxifen causes strokes. So maybe we can cross that off the tamoxifen list!
I have been on tamox for 15 months and I am doing ok on it, I would like to stay on it for the five years, then switch to one of the other drugs.
Just my thoughts.
kris

Hi kids:

The truth of the matter is that no drug is good for our bodies. ALL drugs have side effects. OTC remedies included. We have to be vigilant and very careful with EVERYTHING! Even antibiotics have been implicated in some studies as contributing to cancer, as have many of the antidepressants our docs prescribe for post bc difficulties. It's no easy task to decide what's best for us. Indepth research is a major tool for helping us to choose what's best for us, while also informing us of some of the risks inherent with our choices, which docs may not mention. Keep in mind that the air we breathe, the food we consume, our water, soil, even chemically treated products used in building our homes, are toxic and often carcinogenic, so it's difficult to try to keep our lifestyles "clean" and free of health hazards. Not to mention the weight of deciding about something so major as cancer treatment drugs.

Some women have experienced recurrences and/or mets while taking Tamoxifen and several women on this board have said that their docs told them that the Tamoxifen actually caused their relapse, so it's one tough choice to have to make. I was hormone negative but if I'd been hormone positive, I doubt I'd have taken Tamoxifen.

If one should choose to have a complete hysterectomy which removes both ovaries, then does it make sense to take Tamoxifen or Armiidex at all? In that scenario, what is the benefit to risk ratio for taking an aromatase inhibitor? Keeping in mind that our foods also contain hormones, some, large amounts)then what does this mean to a woman who has had a prophylactic hysterectomy, post breast cancer? Since some hormones are made in our adrenal glands, how much do we cut the risks of our breasts being exposed to estrogen and progesterone, by having a hysterectomy anyway? It's a big can of worms and a very serious can at that. Hysterectomy is not a simple surgery and each woman must search her soul, after much research, to arrive at what is going to be best for her particular situation.

Talking to your doctor about the risks of surgery and drugs, can be helpufl but doctors can sometimes confuse the issue for us. All the more reason to research! One doc may promote one course and be completely convinced that it's best for you, while another doc may promote another course and be equally convinced that it's best for you. Doctor's will tend to believe one study or another and advise patients accordingly. Clearly they're not all on the same page. Some don't even seem to be reading the same book! The very nature of cancer poses far more questions than answers and everything about cancer is "maybe". Chemo may cause more problems than it remedies but it's all the medical community has to offer so most of us take it in the hopes that it will do what it's designed to do and do it well. Sometimes it kills all the cancer cells and sometimes it doesn't. There are so many biochemical if's, when's and maybe's that it's a minefield really. I have no doubt that aromatase inhibitor's have helped many women not to have a recurrence of cancer but for other's it proved to be worthless. It's just the nature of the beast and one we must accept. For all the stats and percentages we read and hear quoted, it all comes down to us, as an individual, and that's how we must consider everything. The stats are quoteth often by our docs and scientists but we can never know which group or percentage we will actually fall into, with anything. Some women survive stage IV's while others ultimately succumb to stage I or II. Why is that? Science can't tell us and our doctor's can't tell us. While some believe we're really "all the same", on the inside, other's believe we're not and I strongly agree with the latter. Otherwise, we'd all be cured by the same treatment, if we shared the same pathology, the same body surface area and the same drugs were used in the very same manner for treatment. We'd all have the same side effects and all feel the same while being treated, yet we all know that's just not the case. Far from it!

Limit your research to reputable resources, while compiling your own notes for comparisons, in conjunction with talking at length with your doctor and then on to a different doctor for another opinion. Make notes to take to your discussions with your doctor(s), citing certain studies, etc.. Even more importantly, write down all your questions. Ask your doctor to qualify his/her recommendations so that you understand what he/she is basing them upon. If your doctor can't or won't qualify his recommendations, then you need a different doctor! Decide what you feel about any recommendations before you jump into any additional surgeries, consider your data from researching and then make your decisions. Don't let anyone rush you into anything you don't feel confident about and remember that another woman's experience, while valuable to know, is not a guide to what our own experience may be, with anything. We are all different and that's the bottom line. We all want to live too and ideally with the least amount of side effects and/or disabilities from drugs/treatment. We owe it to ourselves to take whatever time we need in making such important choices so that we don't find ourselves looking back all the time. We can then feel confident that we did what was right for us and that we informed ourselves as much as possible beforehand. We can then get busy going forward again. Knowing that if our choice brings problems, or new information about those choices becomes available and we have the option, we can then make a different decision. Nothing is written in stone because it's our lives and we can only live it well on our own terms. Cancer just makes doing that a little bit more difficult (and that's an understatement).

I wish you all the best and know that you'll find your answers and make the choices which are right for you. Please let us know how it's going.

Love, light and laughter,
Ink