I am still taking Letrozole but have been told I now have osteporisis and the Letrozole will make it worse, have tried most of the medications for osteo but they have all made me ill. They now want to try me on an injection to which I have said I am not too keen after finding out all about the side effects. I am going to see the oncologist and he is going to discuss the osteo and my hormone therapy medication, feeling very tearful and fearful, you think once you have had surgery and rads then tablets you can move on, but no that is not the case. Every day my body hurts and to think a year and half ago i was a very fit 59 year old had a good life now I just ache and can not do what I used to do get very weary every day. Does anyone else feel like this.
Hello,
Yes I am feeling the same,have started having a few headaches, then get indigestion and some mornings I just don’t feel with it. I have to think that it is Femara, been on it 3 years and have felt rubbish in one way or another after 6 months of being on it. I get fed up with myself moaning about it so can imagine others would feel the same! I eat healthily, do exercise, I gave up work last year because I thought the stress of the job was causing me to feel rough, what more can I do? Counting down the months till I can finish Femara.
Hello, I wonder if anyone has had really bad lower back pain on Letrozole and has found an effective way of dealing with it, other than loads of painkillers. I am taking glucosamine and fish oil and would recommend that for joint pain in general but it doesn’t help my back. I’d be really grateful for any suggestions that have worked. Many thanks.
Hi Everyone. Nearly two years on, on femara, and the stiffness and pain in the tops of my arms has worsened. Someone suggested this could be the calcichew I have been taking for past 18 mths so I have just stopped that to see if it makes any difference. Still seeing the hot flushes and low moods but other wise ok. For those being given different brands of letrozole this happened too me last year and the increase in side effects was terrible. I spoke to my gp and she wrote on my precription femara instead of letrozole and I am please to say I have received femara ever since so for those of you having problems receiving femara it may help to have a word with your GP. Hope this helps.
Hi,
I just came back to reading the website as, following a trip this morning to my GP I’ve been given ‘happy pills’. I am not exactly ecstatic at the thought of taking them, but letrozole- nearly two years now- has made me so tired and down. She argues that because my tiredness is drug-induced (she agrees that letrozole does this) then taking other drugs to ‘undo’ the effects should be fine. Has anybody else been given that advice and how have you got on with them? It feels like admitting defeat as I’ve always coped previously, but sometimes it all gets too much. I vaguely expected to feel fine by now, a year after a mastectomy, and I think I’m rather disappointed with myself, too. Not quite so big and brave as I thought I’d be and my scar is still uncomfortable. What a rat it all is. If not Happy pills, has anybody got a better suggestion?
Browen et All,
I’m in to my second month on Letrozole and I hate it but I take it. Stiff, achey, mind much, bone tired. Someone said only the women who have SE’s go online and complain. Damn right and who are these woman who have no SE’s? I’d love to be one of them. All I think is, four years and ten months more to go and this is as good as it gets!
Hi Lilac Blue and others…
I am one month into taking Letrozole. I am having no side-effects as far as I can tell (still tired post-mx) 1 month too. Am I speaking too soon?
I am sitting crying here, with relief. I am having side effects from Letrosole, sore joints and terrible flushes but I don’t know anyone else on this drug so to read about other people suffering the same side effects make me realise that I’m not a moaning minnie or going of my head. I had chemo 7 years ago for ovarian cancer that left me with sore joints and terrible flushes but I was starting to feel better then last Nov I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was put on Letrosole in Feb and for the first month I felt terrible. It did get better but I still feel stiif and like an old woman. I feel it’s really taken a toll on my body. I think i will go and speak to my GP and see if she will give me something to help. My oncologist basically said you just need to get on with your life and wasn’t very helpful at all. Thank you everyone x
Hi curently on Ranbaxy Letrozole - similar ingredients to Sandoz. Have been on it for 8 weeks now along with calcichew D3 tablets. I had terrible joint pains to start with but the brain fog I had on arimidex has not yet materialised and the flushes are also manageable. After 4 weeks I changed the brand of calcichew to Adcal and the joint pains have eased considerably. I do get trigger thumb quite regularly but can live with that, I am also on glucosamine and cod liver oil tablets. I never thought calcichew tablets could be the culprit for the aches but have to trust my body’s reaction.
Do find I am more weepy than usual, mind you that could be down to trying to come to terms with everything.
Tubby, feel the same way. Have been taking Femera since May and can’t believe how unfit I know am. Keeping at it all and hoping things will improve? Do you get any headaches with it? Regards Jane.
I started Letrozole and herceptin on 24 august and since then my quality of life has declined. Like many others i have joint pains, a common se of letrozole and herceptin so a double whammy for me. The worse thing has been the poor sleep. I get so tired but my sleep is awful.
Saw my lovely onc on wednesday and he has taken me off letrozole for 4 weeks to see if i improve. If i do, he will switch me to tamoxifen and see how i get on with that.
Like many others, i expected after surgery, chemo, rads to start to feel well again, but its the reverse,.
Has anyone else been switched from letrozole to tamoxifen?
pixie xx
My wife is on her third week of letrozole (femara) as part of lump reduction strategy ahead hopefully of a lumpectomy. So far, no noticeable side effects which we presume is good news. Does any one know whether the odd glass of wine (she’d prefer the odd glass or two really!) does any harm?
I don’t know the medical answer to that question, but I’ve been on Letrazole for a year now, and had the odd glass of wine or two regularly! No-one ever said not to… life is for living methinks! There are enough losses of all sorts as we go through this marathon without adding to them unless we have to! Hope she goes well… Jane
Dear All
I posted a note in May when I went on Letrozole, however, after one week, and having every single side effect stated on the ‘leaflet’ during that time, my onco told me to stop taking it as I had a severe allergic reaction. Went back on to tamoxofin and within a week was back to ‘normal’ again. Since then a brand change caused a similar reaction. Now due a prescription review and wondering where this is going. I agree that the long term side effects are not really considered and I like others expected to be ‘pre cancer’ me but no, I am better but still have limits.
Keep smiling
I would like to hear from those who have been on femara for a long time, does the joint pain lessen?
When I started taking femara in June 2015, I had the “pizza oven” side effect; within an hour of taking it, I felt as though I were being baked in an extremely hot oven, different from a hot flash. I was pleased when that sensation just faded to the point where it is totally tolerable.
But now, more than five months after I started the medication, the achy joints side effect kicked in. And the term “achy” does not do the feeling justice; when I stand up after sitting for a while, or start descending a staircase in heels, I feel as though my joints have come completely out of their anchor, are not functioning. My arms feel heavy, from my ankles to my neck, I feel as though someone had thrown acid on each joint.
When I was diagnosed this year, I was a women in her fifties defying her age, feeling my best, athletic and flexible, no typical signs of degeneration or slowing down. Half a year later, I feel, as many women have posted, twice my age. I can’t sleep, I wake up crying, it takes me forever to get out of bed, my brain is fuzzy (don’t know if that is the lack of sleep and tolerating this pain, or whether it is another side effect).
Like so many other women have said, I feel my quality of life is shot. I don’t know if I can stay on this medication to hopefully eke out a slightly higher chance of avoiding a recurrence. Can anyone tell me whether the joint issue abates, or whether it stays this way.
Hi ladies, I have been on zoladex and letrozole since December 2015. At first I was given generic letrozole but I think about April I ask for and was given Femera as I’d heard it was the best. I can’t say I feel any different with the change of brands, they have all given me severe joint pain. I am like an old lady getting out of bed in the morning or getting up if I’ve been sitting for a while. My little boy says I walk like a zombie!! I was a fairly young looking 51 year old but in the last year I have aged at least 20 years. I was so fit and healthy before bc, the meds have certainly taken their toll on my body. I would never not take them though xx
Well, I had already been on happy pills for many years because of my Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). I have all of the same side effect complaints as everybody else. One thing the happy pills have done is prevent the hot flashes associated with this drug; I just don’t have em. However, what I dob’t have in hot flashes, I make up for in aches and pains and spurts of irritability and ANXIETY (go figure!). Every bone in my body hurts. The heel of my left foot hurts so bad that I can stand or walk on it for very long. If I sit down and get back up, I’m hurting. I feel like a handicapped person. I’m 55 in a 80-year old body.
Hi Ladies
I was on Femara at same time I was on Herceptin for 6 months during which I had those joint aches we talk about all the time. After Herceptin stopped (Oct 15) things seem to have settled a little. My aches are nowhere near as much or as severe as they were. And that still seems to be improving. Fatigue still hits me every now and again and so do headaches and small short waves of mild nausea (not sure what that’s about).
So in general I can say that for me side effects are definately on the improve.
Hang in there ladies…it is so important.
Jane