Hi all,
I thought I would post this to help others that are putting up with symptoms from Anastrozole.
I was prescribed Anastrozole and I am also on Abemaciclib. I was on the brand Mylan for the Anastrozole before and all was good, I had very few symptoms. But then my pharmacy said that only the generics were available for Anastrozole and my particular chosen brand was out of stock. So I accepted this and proceeded to take the generic Anastrozole. Because I am also on Abemaciclib I was more wary of this drug and thought any side effects might be coming from this one.
Anyway long story short both of my eyes have been watering incessantly for the last six months - like tears running down my face. It got so bad that my oncologist recommended me to an ophthalmologist who I was due to see in a months time. The skin on my fingers was also peeling off on both hands. Again I put this down to Abemaciclib and as this is still in patent (ie only one brand to choose from) I thought I would I would put up with it for the remaining six months that I am on this drug for. I tried everything and bought about five different brands of eye drops to try and fix my eyes but to no avail and a lot of hand cream to fix my peeling skin on my hands.
It was only when I went for an appointment last week in the hospital and I mentioned my eyes that the nurse suggested that the eye watering was probably coming from the Anastrozole instead of Abemaciclib.
So with this in mind I moved to another Pharmacy and despite not being able to still get Mylan, they’d recommended a brand called Teva. After two days my eyes stopped watering completely and it has been over a week now and I can’t believe that it must have been the generic Anastrozole the whole time! The skin on my fingers has also stopped peeling so I would just like to say if you have symptoms try a different brand, and be very very wary of generics!
I have also learned that some of the coating that is put on generics can cause pretty significant side-effects; so don’t settle and do shop around and change if you find things are not working for you.
And thankfully I can at last put down the eye drops! 