Wow ladies ! thank you so much for sharing your very informative, helpful and insightful views on the dilemma we face in deciding to take (in my case) Letrozole or not.
I’ve posted on other threads about side effects; I’ve only been on it for 6 weeks and whilst my SEs are currently limited to hot flushes, some joint aches and dull headaches which I can manage, the most debilitating is very poor sleep which is exhausting and I’m finding that particularly hard to deal with.
I’m desperately hoping all will calm down after a few months and so am currently persevering in taking it.
But, I am seesawing about the longer term effects and the whole balance of Q of Life.
I’m just coming up to 65 (next month) and had a mastectomy at the end of January. Clear nodes (which is good) and tumour size 20mm (less good) and so my NPI is 3.4 which is right on the cusp of good/moderate prognosis which does bother me a bit and sways me to thinking I really ought to persevere with Letrozole. But then my NHS predict only gives me an 1.1% benefit in the longer 10 year term.
Your tumour is the most common size so not huge 2cm isn’t huge. You don’t say your grade of cancer which makes a difference. Clear nodes is very good. I had grade 1 cancer first time, no lymph node involvement and it was oestrogen positive so that was also quite good from the survival point of view. Unfortunately oestrogen positive cancers are more likely to recur at a steady 1 percent a year. I didn’t realise that this meant after 20 years it was 20% of those diagnosed 20 years earlier (and who survived). I was 48 when first diagnosed and 67 at second diagnosis. That means by 84 (currently most likely age I can expect to live to) I have a 17% of it coming back again. I have lymph node involvement this time and it’s grade 2 so I am pretty sure it will come back to haunt me. Only time will tell… As I have developed poor memory and high blood pressure and cholesterol it’s just as likely I will be taken out by Alzheimer’s or heart disease. Letrozole has the side effects of raising blood pressure and cholesterol levels so I blame my bad heart health on that
Post menopausal women can also take it but I took it when I was premenopausal at my first breast cancer diagnosis. I didn’t take it for long as it had side effects I did not like- higher risk of uterine cancer being worst of these