Anybody tried this for hot flushes / night sweats ?
Kris
Hiya or Hola Kris,
Im sure someone will tell you if Im wrong but Gabapentin is for nerve pain,similar to the one I take called Pregabalin or Lyrica.
Ive had one of those Ladycare magnets in my knickers for a few years now,before I got BC,in my humble opinion they are marvellous but I dont know if you`ll get one in Spain,anyone in UK who could post you one? Adios, love Mags xxxx
Hi Kris
I get Gabapantin for nerve pain caused by bone mets. Don’t know anything about it being used for hot flushes sorry.
Anne x
Hi Kris
Just checked Wikipedia and quote ‘Gabapentin has been prescribed to menopausal patients being treated with anti-androgenic compounds to reduce the incidence and intensity of the accompanying hot flashes’. It does seem to be used for a wide variety of things including methadone, cocaine and alcohol addiction!!!
Seems a drug of many uses but I must admit it has certainly helped my nerve pains.
Anne x x
thanks all , one of the breast cancer nurses mentioned this to me , and the sweating is so bad now that despite the fact that i have a horror of taking any more chemicals , I think I´m going to have to bite the bullet and try it , cannot go on like this any longer .
I´m wearing the ladycare magnet , day and night since february , but once i started the letrozole nothing is seeming to lessen the impact . I´m hoping to get to see a doctor in the next week , and will ask for gabapentin , I have to try it or otherwise I will stop the letrozole .
Many thanks
Kris
Hi Kris,
Can I just mention a word of caution if you do ask for gabapentin (or pregabalin) in case your GP doesn’t say it. When you want to stop taking it you need to come off it slowly!! Unfortunately no-one thought to tell me and when I stopped abruptly it wasn’t a good experience!
Dawn
xx
Hi Dawn , Thanks for that advice . May i ask , Why were you prescribed the gabapentin ? Was that for hot flushes ? I just have to do something , I cannot go on like this for the next five years , and I´ve tried everything else .
How long did you stay on it ?
Any information gratefully received . I did put a post asking for anyone who had had SE at first on Femara , arimidex etc , but who had susequently found that they died down to post …there were no replies , so I´m asssuming that what you start with , you end up with .
Kris
Hi Kris,
Sorry but I am not going to be much help to you :(. I was on pregabalin for a few months but for control of nerve pain. My ca. is not a hormonal one plus I had a hysterectomy when I was in my late 30s. I do know some people suffer dreadfully with hot flushes and it can be quite unpleasant - you have my sympathy. I have heard of people switching to a different AI so maybe you can have a talk with your onc about this. Also some I know were finding quite a difference between SE’s on different manufacturers of their AIs
Dawn
xx
Hi Kris
Just wondering whether you decided to give gabapentin a go - and if so whether it’s helped at all? I’ve been on tamoxifen for 9 months now and have suffered severe hot flushes practically from day one. Like you I can’t imagine going on like this for another 4+ years so my onc/GP have suggested going on gabapentin. Not very keen on the idea of taking yet more pills but have got to the stage where I think I’ll have to.
Caroline
You would´nt believe the problems I´ve had getting it ! That comes from being in Spain , not having anyone at all you can go to if you have problems , ie no BC nurse ,
I finally got a prescription from the hospìtal last thursday . Went to the farmacia to get it , and they said the prescribed unit of the doseage was too low , that it was´nt produced in that low a dose ! In fac the lowest dose i could have in Spain is 300mg , not the paltry 75 mg I was prescribed . I truely felt that the onc was taking the p, giving , or trying to give me something that would´nt have a cat in hells chance of working .
Anyway , being Spain, you can buy anything over the counter , So I bought the 300mg dose , and I actually took the first one last night before i went to bed .
What I intend to do is stay on this dose for a week , if no problems , then increase it to 600mg . Then I will see my onc a week thursday ( back in the UK this thursday for nearly a week , so i havve no time to sort it out before i go .
I really hope this will work , I know that I will not continue like this for the next 5 years , these last months have been horrendous ,absolutely and utterly , I never realised that you could suffer so much with flushes , sweats and night sweats . Again like you , I loathe taking pills , and to take pills because of the sside effects of other pills ,just seems barmy , but this is breast cancer , like has changed and is very different to 12 months ago , I have to change with it .
I´ll let you know how I get on .
Kris
I’ve been on 100mg of gabapentin-and until recently it was very effectve at this dosage. It was today in fact, that we upped it to 200. I was told all along that it was a low dose, which could be increased-it’s the usual way of doing things with pain meds, so not sure why you are so annoyed with the onc?
Hi Kris,
you sound at your wits end with the sweats,is it the redness that p***** you off,the wetness or do you get the nauseous feeling I told you about me having when I sent you a PM? Have you googled Gabapentin
to see what harm you might be doing yourself taking such a large dose,have you considered taking anything herbal? My friend used to take wild yam,Im 99% sure it doesnt contain oestrogen. Can you call someone on this helpline while you`re in England and get their advice,it just sounds so dangerous to me to take almost 4 times the dose. Good luck,love Mags xxxx
Hi jackwagstaff
As woody24 mentioned please do give the BCC helpline a call and talk this through with one of our trained members of staff. You can call this from Spain on (+44) 2076 200 077 or England on 0808 800 6000. The lines are open Monday to Friday 9 to 5pm and Saturday 9 to 2pm.
I hope you manage to get something sorted out.
Best wishes Sam, BCC Facilitator
Sorry I should have explained better .
There is no gabapentin pill produced at 75mg , it does´nt exist .
They( Pfizer ) do produce a 100mg and a 200mg , but these are not available in Spain .
The lowest prescribed dose has to be 300mg , because that is the lowest here .
All doctors dentists etc have books explaining the dosage available for them to prescribe , and also what the optimum levels are for the various problems they are supposed to help . There was no point in writing a prescription for 75mg as it could´nt be dispensed , and I cannot go to my doctor as he will want the oncologist to write a correctr prescription before he will put it on my docs for the future .
That Elaine is why I am so angry with my oncologist , He should have all this information at hand , plus he can read the results of the various trials that have been done.I felt that I´d wasted two days travelling 140 kilometers each day in temperatures of 35% for nothing .
As soon as I got back from the hospital I did indeed phone up the hotline and spoke to a lovely person called Rose who kindly telephoned Pfizer and asked their advice on the 75mg dose .
They told her , “they had never seen it prescribed in doses so low , it was usually 300mg or more for hot flushes / night sweats etc .”
I cannot get back to the oncologist as I´m coming to the UK for a few days this week . He is only at the hospital nearer to me one day a week , and that is for booked consultations , somehow I have to manage to get to him on my return so that he can amend the prescription , plus the 300mg is a capsule so I cannot break it in half .
Believe me I have tried everything else , you name it , I´ve got it here and been taking most of it for months to very little effect. Accupuncture seemed the best , but at 50 euros a go , I could only afford four sessions .
So I´m going to do this "my way " for the next week . Obviously , if i get anything untoward happening then I´ll rethink . I´ve spent a small fortune trying to find ways to cope with this , the Ladycare magnet helped , but everytime someone mentions something , off i go sending a cheque , and taking yet more herbal pills that do nothing for me .
Sorry if I sound irate . Believe me , this is not the "me " I used to be .
Kris
,
Hi there,
I’ve just picked up the thread on Pregabalin (Lyrica). I was googling about hot flushes and remedies and wanted to put my 5 eggs in when I read the forum!
I have taken Pregabalin on and off for about 1.5 years now and was prescribed it by a hospital in North East Spain where we have a home, for a sciatica and a disc problem. Nothing else worked and it was bliss. You can buy it over the counter where we live although it is expensive and I buy 150mg and 300mg depending on which chemist I go to. And a big fat yes! it does help with night sweats and generally makes me feel pretty good. I feel calmer, more positive and also I sleep like a baby when I have taken it. What I do when I have the 300mg is split the capsule and take the other half when needed.
As I take it for pain the only negative for me is that when I don’t take it I don’t feel as ‘settled’ but have not had any withdrawel symptoms. In England the doctors don’t prescribe it as it is pricey but will prescribe Gabapentin, Pregabalins older sister!
The stage name of Pregabalin is Lyrica.
I hope this helps.
Hi Judy , thanks for that . I had also read about Pregabalin , but it appeared from what I had read that it was the "gabapentin that I had read about that was specifically used for hot flushes , or rather that it had been licensed in the states for that use , after it’s main use for control of seizures etc .
Very interested in the fact that you can obtain your pills in 150 mg . I cannot get less than 300 mg tablets of gabapentin in southern Spain .At the moment I am in the UK visiting family , and although I am having hot flushes and all the other SE , they are nothing like as bad as they were .
I have been taking the 300mg tablets for exactly one week now , ( bought them over the counter ) whether it is this , or whether it is the fact that I am not now in 35 degree heat . Actually I don’t think it can be that entirely , as the shops here are cool , and when I get a flush I tend to stick my head in the nearest frozen food freezer and grab something frozen in both my hands to cool me down . It must look extremely strange ,and I’m sure that if this wer the Uk I would have the store detectives following me !
Hopefully , next week , on my return , I will get and see my onc and find out just what he did intend to prescribe and in what dose !
hello everyone, I was just coming on here to ask if anyone had anything that had worked for hot flushes and I came upon this thread. I am at my wits end, after 6 years on tamoxifen and latterly arimidex, i thought i was managing them - but they have suddenly got a whole lot worse, horrible things! Up till the last few weeks i’ve taken them in my stride, but now…!!! Anyway, i will go to my GP and ask about gabapentin and give it a go. Has anyone else had a sudden worsening of hot flushes at all, and if so, did they improve?
Mo
Out of interest - Floyd, my German Shepherd was given Gabapentine for his spinal problem! He was on it for a month - I had to sign all sorts of waivers as it hadn’t been passed for animal consumption. To cut a long story short, he can now jump in and out of my car! It seems to be a wonder drug
Thanks for that Shaz, I´ve been groaning getting in and out of the car for months . I will watch with interest to see if that improves .
The day I jump in through the back and begin licking my feet , I´ll know it´s working !!
Kris
Well managed to get to my onc on the day after my return from the UK .
I had (very ) carefully worded a letter to him explaining very briefly the problem and asking him to issue a new prescription in the dose he thought would give me most benefit .I managed to pass it to his nurse to give to himself and sat and waited .
Eventually she came out with a new prescription and he had written on the bottom of my letter the new instructions as to doseage .
I am now taking gabapentin 300mg three times a day .
There is a definate difference to my hot flushes . I do not have as many , they don´t last as long and they are not so intense . Also , I am only waking once a night . That has been since thursday , it may get better , but it is so much better than it was .
I´m just so happy to have any kind of relief .
Kris