I was prescribed venlafaxine anti-depressants to try and help combat severe hot flushes/mood swings I have been experiencing ever since chemo put me into early menopause and now tamoxifen I also am on herceptin.
I took the first one yesterday and within an hour got a pounding headache followed by extreme nausea, has any one else used this drug? and if so what have been the SE? I have spent the past 2 days in bed cause I felt so sick and only now feel like eating, also could not sleep all night. Given a choice between hot flushes and headache/nausea I would choose hot flushes so have decided not take it anymore, if anyone has any experience of this drug can you please relay any information you may have.
I have also been prescibed this drug, over a month ago but after reading about the side effects and doing some googling i am too scared to take it. I know it sounds daft but i had heard that this drug can initially make you quite ill before it gets better - i don’t want to feel ill so i have not started them.
Melx
Hi Beardie,
I also think it made me feel a hell of a lot worse yesterday, I had to go for herceptin IV and told the nurses about it they actually said I looked really ill yesterday and I certainly felt ill, thanks for posting, its not me going mad then!!! Have you tried anything else to help with the flushes???
I’m afraid all anti-depressants have side effects at the beginning like most drugs!
I take them for depression and have persevered for very positive effects eventually. A-ds are a life line for me even though they took 6x weeks to settle…
Now taking biphosphonates I’m finding they take a few weeks to sort out uncomfortable side effects but I’m determined to persevere…
No I haven’t tried anything else yet for fear of things interfering with Tamoxifen. I see my onco in Jan so i will ask for some advice. I only got venlafaxine because i asked for it after my gp gave me an anti - depressant that does interfere with Tamoxifen ! If I find anything new out i will let u know.
Take care - Melx
I’ve been on it for a few weeks now and have not had any problems with it. It’s a nuisance having to take it twice a day, but that’s bearable.
I have read that the extended release versions (the name ends in XR, not surprisingly) help A LOT with nausea, so get back to your GP and ask for XR versions, where you only take one a day. Also take them with or just after food.
I have also tried Citalopram, but didn’t find it worked well enough on the depression symptoms, Ven seems to be better for me so far, but it’s early days. Flushes were relieved on Citalopram for a month or so but then came back, along with the low mood, so I asked my GP to swap me onto these.
Give the XR versions a go, that may fix the problem.
Forgot to say, I’m also in the middle of Herceptin for primaries, and the lovely Tamoxifen.
They gave me low dose to take for the first few weeks then they gave me higher dose with extended release XR thereafter I think its a gradual increase, trouble is I’ve only taken one so far and had such a bad reaction the headache and nausea have confined me to bed for nearly 2 days only got up yesterday to go to the hospital for herceptin IV, and just eaten had some soup first thing in 2 days, maybe this just is not for me, I did initially ask for Citalopram but they told me that Ven was more effective. Starting Rads on Wednesday next week so will ask onc about this see what he says.
Thanks for your advice ladies
love and light
sarahlousie xxx
Was your bad reaction on the first of the low dose or the first of the XR higher dose? If on the XR higher dose but you got on ok with the lower dose, you might find you can increase more gradually by going from 2 x 37.5mg/day to 3 x 37.5mg/day. We are all individuals and respond differently to drugs (I can’t take amytriptyline, it takes my head off) but if Ven really doesn’t work for you, there are others you can try.
I’ve been taking 75mg venlafaxine for most of the last 12 years for OCD and depression. The ses will calm down, but it is hell to come off - in fact I can’t come off it, even though I’ve tried many times. I’ve just read the NICE guidelines on it and discover it’s not even recommended for OCD now! I wouldn’t take it if I had a choice.
Thanks for the input and advice ladies, I only took 1 37mg low dose tablet 2 days ago and still got a slight headache although the nausea has finally subsided. Will definately not be taking this medicine as I’ve decided that hot flushes are better than these SE, I always used to suffer every month with migrane/nausea with my periods and it always made me feel quite suicidal I did go to the dr about the period/migranes and never got anywhere so gave up and just suffered each month, I found that drinking lucozade really helped the headaches but now realise the pure glucose was probably feeding my cancer, horrendous!!! This headache/migranne is the first since I started taking tamoxifen and I think it was definately the ven that triggered it so back to the drawing board and I am gonna try some natural remedies now and to hell with the estrogen link. I’ve heard Sage tea can really help but was put off cause someone mentioned that it contains estrogen, its got to be better than these drugs.
Thanks again
love and light to you all
sarahlousie xx