Hi, I’ve been taking Tamoxifen/Nolvadex D for 8 months. My waist and stomach area has grown enormously. I can’t exercise at the moment as I’ve just had expanders fitted, but wonder if I’ll be able to get these inches off again, ever? Has anyone else had a lot of weight gain around the tummy area whilst taking Tamoxifen?
Yes, and it is very hard to shift.
Reducing your food intake and exercise will help, but may not get rid of it completely.
Just something we have to accept whilst on this drug.
Mcgle
I too have weight gain, was around 9st 5lb before BC, went down to 9st on FEC then back to 9st 5lb on Taxotere and have slowly risen to 10stone, I struggle to maintain this weight and am now really having to watch what I eat and drink as I seem to jump weight at 4lbs at a time. Through excersise I have managed to tone and my PS accused me of loosing weight before recon as he had less tummy to work with but I assured him this wasn’t the case, I now call my hips my tamoxifen hips, the tummy at least came in useful for my recon,but I got quite snappy last year with practice nurse who hadnt read my file and questioned if I felt comfortable at being 4 kilos heavier than at previous smear.
I am 39 and taking on the shape of my mother who is 63, I hate it, it had better do its job.
Debbie
I’ve put on a stone since my mastectomy last year - on Tamox nearly that long. It’s all around my tummy - I look flipping pregnant! The practice nurse who gave me my Zoladex injections once asked me if they hurt. I said not particularly. She said it must be all the extra weight I was carrying!! Then when she saw my face, she hurriedly added that it was probably because of the Zoladex. I was so upset by that (and the other side effects) that I stopped having the injections a month ago.
I have been eating very healthily and use my exercise bike, but I’m having such a hard time shifting any weight at all (well maybe two pounds in a month!). So now I only look 6 months pregnant instead of 7 1/2!!
Sooooo, you’re not alone!!
Jacki x
Dear All
Thanks for your comments. Looks as though I’ll just have to put up with it, although it will definitely make me exercise more. Maddy
I’m already a Trinny and Susannah APPLE, bigger on the waist than hips, and the post-DIEP corsets just squeeze an even bigger tyre than usual up above the waistband, which rolls down and catches the navel… about a stone and a half overweight already, buying size 16 tops for the first time ever. Expecting hormone therapy to be advised when I get post-op results on Weds and just dread getting bigger still… apart from walking, I’m not sure how soon other exercise can be phased in? I used to run until a couple of years ago, can’t remember how to now ( ! ), have been told to avoid public swimming pools for 6 months. Heading miserably to the kitchen to find my Cream Egg… Lyn 
Yep, my stomach looks disgusting. I can’t remember being this big when I was 9 months pregnant.
I think my main problems is, that I seem to have lost my sense of taste since being on Tamoxifen, so I cover everything with strong tasting sauces so that I can gain a little pleasure out of what I am putting in my mouth.
I can’t even stomach the thought of a cup of tea. I’m OK whilst drinking it, but to actually stand and make a cup of tea turns my stomach, even if my husband makes it for me, the actual thought in my head of a cup of tea knocks me right off and I used to love my cup of tea.
To be honest, I’m totally fed up of feeling like this.
Linda
Im glad you have mentioned that about the tea, im exactly the same with coffee, when im actually drunking it im ok, but the thought of it really makes me feel sick. i thought i was crazy, i think its because i used to drink coffee whilst all the chemo drugs were entering my body, or perhaps i am strange!!!
So on the weight gain front, would your advice be to lose weight whilst you can? I’m beginning to think that there is an advantage to having a mastectomy a) because you can exercise quicker and b) because you may have more fat to play with later.
I never did like coffee and came off normal tea at the beginning of chemo, just on green tea now. No one is stange it just affects people differently.
love
Pauline
Oh dear; my daughter is supposed to be taking Tamoxifen soon and says she doesn’t want to because she doesn’t want to gain any more weight and look like a man. I am trying to persuade her to take it, as her mother, obviously I want the best for her, but now I have read all the comments about weight gain I know what she is worried about. Don’t know how best to advise her. I just want her to live a long and happy life.
Hi
Can I be a bit more positive. I was about 10 stone when diagnosed but would prefer to be 9 stone as I’m only 5ft 2". I started Tamoxifen in Nov 07 and dreaded putting on more weight. Sure enough I went up to 10 st 12 pounds. Felt awful quite down with no energy and I could only fit into track suit bottoms elastic leggings etc. But I did eventually get myself into a better frame of mind and realised that when I wrote down what I was eating I was eating more that I used to and more of the naughty but nice foods. Yet my activity level was much less no wonder I was putting on weight and I was telling everyone it was because of the Tamoxifen.
End of Jan I joined slimming world and a gym. I lost weight quickly at first BUT I have only lost a pound in the last 3 weeks. I’m now 10st 1 pound and it does not want to shift. So maybe this is my Tamoxifen weight but I can fit into more clothes than I could before diagnosis because I’m a little more toned from the gym.
Hope this helps a bit ( I have to add I could easily lose weight before diagnosis if I was going to have to put a bikini on for my hols and always got down to 9 stone it just always crept up again afterwards)
Hi there
I have been on Tamoxifen for three years and didn’t have any weight gain for the first two and a half years. It’s only been since a hysterectomy last July that I seem to have put about half a stone on. Sometimes it fluctuates. The other week it went up another 4 lbs,but then I watched what I ate and it went back down again. Swings and roundabouts.
Had a double mastectomy and recon and have always hated my implants, feel hard and nothing like my lovely original boobs, but to be honest my body is far worse following the hysterectomy. Belly and flesh all loose and lumpy. Although I am 9 stone and 5 ft 4", I still hate my body. Suddenly got an old lady tummy as I call it (even though I suppose I am an “old lady” at 51). What with the tummy and the boobs, it’s not a sight I’m particularly happy with. Definitely didn’t have this extra weight on the Tamoxifen. However, I am here and happy, so that’s the main thing.
Julie
Hi Julie
I also had bi-lateral mastectomy and decided to have delayed reconstruction. I wanted to have the DIEP operation but the PS said I hadn’t enough skin on my tummy. I now have expanders in and going each week to have saline inserted. The PS said if the implants aren’t satisfactory when theyr’e fitted then I could always try the DIEP solution at a later date. Have you thought of having the tummy op?
Maddy
Hi Maddy
I am still under the Plastic Surgeon and am seeing him in a few months. I had immediate reconstruction and then after a few days out of hospital had a massive infection in the left side. I ended up being whisked into hospital and after three days of intravenous antibiotics, with no effect, they decided to take the implants out. I then had the expanders put in and gradually had them filled every 4 weeks. It took from the end of May with my initial reconstruction to December 2006 to get the boobs and size I was reasonally happy with, as my body needed time to heal before they started with the expanders. But what did happen when I had the infection was I lost a patch of skin about the size of a 50p piece, initially they thought I might need a skin graft, but they gave it time and gradually it healed. However,the consequences of that are that my left nipple goes more to the left side than it should do, and for some reason there is a tightness under the left side of the breast where the skin is sort of stuck down to the muscle. To be honest after what I had been through, with the infection etc,my plastic surgeon and myself at the time agreed at the time that the boobs were about as good a result as we would possibly get, and he described it as trying to do anymore to correct it “as possibly climbing to the top of the ladder, only to come sliding down the snake”. I was in hospital for 9 days when I had the infection, and I think he thought he didn’t want to put me through more at the time. However, since I have put this gradual weight on, what has happened is that the flesh at the top of the breast has filled out slightly and I have ended up with a slight crease along the top of the breasts, so his next plan of action is to do liposuction and insert it into the breasts to fill them out. But the weird thing is because he knows I am not happy with my weight, my fighting weight is really 8st 3lb, that’s what I am happiest at, he says I need to be at my ideal weight before he attempts this, because if my weight fluctuates again,then we might have more problems. When I go to see him in the summer depending on what my weight is then (just started seriously going to Gym and Pilates/Low impact aerobic classes plus watching what I eat), I will bring up what you’ve said. To be honest before I put on this weight and ended up with the muffin top belly (bikini line scar they tell you before the op, that’s a big joke) following hysterectomy I remember only a year and a half ago looking in mirror and thinking considering what I’d been through that I wasn’t a bad old boot. Had a lovely flat tummy, and the boobs were passable.
I might have had less problems having a delayed reconstruction, but at the time 3 years ago, I was just desperate to have it done. Because I have had ovaries removed, and can’t take HRT or any other type of soya supplements or anything, because of the previous BC and a blood clotting disorder that I have called Factor V Leiden, I think that is why the weight is creeping on. I’ve even noticed a difference in my cellulite. Even that seems to have crept on over the last few months as well. Thanks for your advice though, I will certainly bring it up when I see my Surgeon.
Julie
To Paddilo,
Tell your daughter to try it…ive been on Tamoxafen almost a year, and wieght steady…i lost wieght whilst on chemo…used to be 5ft 2 and 9st 2, now about 8 st 5…and im 42 ,no periods since 3rd chemo and awaiting oophectomy…At least if she tries it she might find it is ok, or otherwise can stop it…I must add too, Caren keating stopped it and her cancer initially was only grade !..minw was grade 3, and as a single mum to 3 kids i will do all i can to prevent recureence, even if i put on 5 stone its better to be alive…
jill
HI EVERYONE
I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY ME WHO HAS GAINED ALOT OF WEIGHT ALSO ON TAMOXIFE/NOLVADEX AND COULD NOT GET RECONTRUCTION AS I WAS OVERWEIGHT I WAS A SIZE 14/16 NOW A SIZE 18,TRIED TO DO EXCERCISE AND JOINED WEIGHT WATCHERS TO NO AVAIL, DOCTOR ADVISED I WAIT UNTIL TAM IS ENDED
SUSAN!!!
PS I REALLY SHOULD"NT GRUMBLE!!!
Hi Susan
I thought if people had a little bit of extra weight on it was better from a reconstruction point of view and it meant that reconstruction could be done from other parts of the body. When I had my reconstruction 3 years ago,because I was only about 8 st, and then went down to 7 and a half stone initially afterwards because of all the vomiting and illness with my infection, I was told my only option at the time was silicone implants because I didn’t have any extra flesh anywhere for them to take anything from, so I had to have silicone implants or nothing. I always thought I might have ended up with much softer reconstruction if I hadn’t have had the silicone, but who knows. My boobs always feel much harder than I would like them, but like you say we shouldn’t grumble. Having said that I’m grateful for what I’ve got in many ways. Reconstruction, for all it’s problems sometimes, is one step on the way to recovery. Weight gain is a pain at times, but then again the alternative is not always good either!!!
Julie