can dose of tamoxifen be reduced ?

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Hi everyone
,what I want to know is whether the dose can be reduced to lessen side effects of tamoxifen?
I’ve been on it since July 08 and felt good to start with (well as good as anyone can feel recovering from chemo and radio)but now am suffering anxiety which seems to me to be out of proportion.Would reducing the dose help or is it all or nothing?I’m glad to take tamoxifen if it can prolong my life but don’t want to be miserable and make my family suffer too,or what’s the point really?

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I was interested in this too, and felt sure I had heard ages ago of a related study. I found this link: thiswww.personalmd.com/news/a1999083010.shtml
However, you will see that it took place ten years ago, only 105 women were involved and the trial lasted over just two months. There doesn’t seem to be anything more recent than this unfortunately.

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I’ve heard some women say that they can manage the side effects of tamoxifen by taking half a dose in the morning and the remainder at night. The prescribed daily dose is 20 mg. I think you’d need to talk to you onc about the implications of reducing the dose.

Geraldine

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Hi Everyone,

I found that my symptoms were very bad at first. Almost Constant flushes no sex drive etc and i was pretty miserable and about to stop taking it but I persevered.

I,ve been taking it now for 1 year and find that my side effects come and go and currently my sex drive has returned and I only get the odd night sweat. My periods are sporadic , I,ve only had 3 in 18 months but as long as I can live with the side effects that is ok.

I do still have a week or so of quite bad flushes once in a while but it has definitely settled down. So might be worth trying it for a bit longer.

lots of love Andrea xx