i started on Tamoxifen nearly 2 weeks ago,over the last few days I have become irritable, moody and generally feel depressed. I am also getting cramps, aching pelvic pain, similar to PMT but feels more intense.
After reading a bit about it, I’m now getting anxious over other side effects such as Ovarian cancer! I feel like I’m slowly going mad!!
I didn’t feel this anxious or worried when I was diagnosed with BC.
Can anyone tell me if they have felt like this and if the symptoms lessened over time. I know I have to give my body a chance to get used to it but I’m just feeling horrible.
I’ve been on Tamoxifen for six weeks now and things seem to have settled down a lot from the first few weeks.
I mentioned to the oncologist during a clinical review that 90% of the time I’m fine and then the other 10% I’m liable to dissolve into tears. He said that they were mood swings which are a side effect of Tamoxifen and seemed to think that of all my side effects - that time is the key here and that when I see him in six weeks for follow up after radiotherapy that many of the side effects would have settled down and I would be happy and smiley!!
He said to keep a diary of side effects because weirdly I was suffering with whole body chills as well hot flashes and now that you have mentioned pelvic pain - I realise that I’ve had that too over the past few weeks so will need to mention that to him too especially as I had an ovarian cyst which was declared benign a few months before being diagnosed with breast cancer but not had periods for 18 months. The chills have all but disappeared now although I still have peripheral neuropathy but he said many of the side effects can be eased with medication of one kind or another.
Personally I’m not sure how I feel about taking yet more medication so I’m dealing with stuff as it happens and from originally feeling horror struck at potential side effects - now I’m much more relaxed about the whole thing. Hopefully this will happen to you too and you will begin to feel a lot more at ease with the side effects when things begin to settle down.