Hi ladies
Has anyone swapped from Letrozole to Anastrazole? I have been on Letrozole for 3 months and I feel like I have run a marathon every day.
I would be interested in hearing others experiences if they have swapped.
Also do you know what the better brands are of either of the drugs?
Thankyou
Hi Bepositive,
Thank you for your post.
I hope my response will help the forum members to see it and share their experience and answers.
In the meantime, for any clinical questions, please remember that our breast care nurses are here and happy to talk things through.
Sending you our best wishes,
Zoe
Hi @Bepositive I can’t answer your exact question as I was put on Letrozole (I’m 67 and started it the week after my birthday last October) but when I had the SE of vaginal dryness, I was moved on to Tamoxifen so that I could use a vaginal oestrogen treatment. Tamoxifen, for me, was vile so I have switched back to Letrozole. There was a conversation with my onc about moving to Anastrazole instead of going back to Letrozole but, as she said, the two are interchangeable and apart from the VA and some fatigue/brain fog, I wasn’t too bad on it. Most women tolerate either quite well but obviously some have a range of SE on either. What my onc agreed though was to arrange to have the same brand all of the time, so if you find a brand that suits you, arrange through your GP to put it on your prescription and if your pharmacy won’t/can’t supply it, move pharmacies.
Recommending a brand is difficult as you’ll always find women who can’t tolerate each brand and women who can’t. I had my GP put Accord on my prescription (although it can be a struggle getting from my pharmacy). In a very imprecise piece of research, ie looking at the posts on this forum, Accord seems to have a decent rep. It is important to do some trial and error and keep your GP and onc in the loop so that can help you get the best solution possible as you’ll be on it for a long time.
You don’t say how long you’ve been on Letrozole. Some women seem to yet used to it after 6 - 9 months whereas others are fine to begin with and the cumulative effect causes issues after a while. It’s all so individual which is why it’s hard to compare experiences. I hope you sort things out as living with side effects is hard and for people who don’t get them or are cancer muggles, it can be difficult for them to understand how debilitating SE can be.