I've been taking Letrozole for nearly 5 months, following a double mastectomy (oestrogen-receptive cancer both sides) in August, and I've just had the results of the dexa scan which, I believe, they put all breast cancer patients on Letrozole through, given how common osteoporosis is as a side-effect. Essentially, I'm just in the osteoporosis range (-2.8 T score on the lumbar spine: what a learning curve this has all been !) and accordingly, so long as I'm taking Letrozole, they'd want me to take biophosphanates (against osteoporosis). If I wasn't taking Letrozole, they wouldn't. According to my consultant, I have a 2% greater chance of being alive in 5 years (aren't statistics wonderful!) if I take the Letrozole compared with if I don't. 2%, obviously, isn't that much, though someone did point out that perhaps there'd be a 10% chance of being still alive but diseased! ... I've been reading up about biophosphanates and they don't sound particularly pleasant, and in any case I really don't want to get on that merry-go-round where you're taking one drug to balance off the side-effects of another, etc etc. As it is, I've upped my nutritional regime considerably since I was diagnosed, and will be doing another course at the Penny Brohn Centre next month. I know it's only me who can make this decision - and my inclination at the moment is to stop taking the Letrozole - but if anyone has any comments/further information, I'd really appreciate the input.
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