Topic: Either Tamoxifen, Ovarian Suppression , or BOTH???

Thanks for your responses, Ladies.

Also, if I may add... I'm 39 and am NOT giving up the hope of having children.  So as you can imagine, preserving my fertility is at the top of my priority list (right along with my health, of course!).  That being said, I don't know if enough studies have been done to indicate how ovarian suppression affects fertility post treatment.  

To be honest, if I had the balls, I'd just forego all of the above.  I've already made huge lifestyle changes and plan to incorporate more.  With a distant recurrence rate of 8%.... that means I have a 92% chance of cancer NOT recurring!  But.  There's a tiny voice that tells me at least to give it a chance, and then decide if it's too much to bear.   

I don't want to double up on the two.... seems like a double whammy!  :( 

Katherella, you might want to check out the Natural Girls thread.  Many of the women on there have made the choice to forgo hormonal therapy and are using natural ways to lower the bad estrogens in their body, as well as getting all the other hormones into balance.  I believe there is also a Young Survivor's forum on here, where many of the threads discuss all the issues you mentioned.

I am 43 and have been put on Tamox, Zoladex and Zometa. I have been doing okay with the side effects...the first few days after the shots I had a lot of body aches and joint pains but that seems to have diminished. I now only have the tiredness. If I nap during the day I am usually okay. I started all 3 the same week so I cant really attribute the tiredness to one of the meds.

Katherella-Read my diagnosis line and we seem to have very similar BC except that I had a smaller separate primary IDC growing in my other breast and just never figured out how to put them both on here:) I did have chemo and did Lupron during chemo to protect my ovaries.  The fertility doc we went to before I started treatment said that this was pretty effective and since the ovaries can be affected by chemo but that it does nothing to the uterus it was the best choice unless we were going to freeze embryos which my BS denied because of the hormones that I would have to be given to get the ovaries to super produce for a cycle.  Only after I started the Lupron for protecting the ovaries did I find out that ovarian suppression was a good idea in treating the BC.  I had a great response to chemo and my docs were all on board for me to take tamox for a few years and then they would ok a pregnancy.  Well I turned out to be a poor metabolizer and all the protection I did was for naught.  Eight weeks ago I had to have the ovaries out.  At first this was devastating to my husband and I but now we feel that we will be parents it will just take another route.  I was 36 at diagnosis by the way and turned 37 day before bilateral mx. Anyway when I had the ovaries out the OB/GYN said that they were "beautiful", her words seriously.  So obviously the Lupron protected them quite well.  I am on Femara now so I guess docs think that both are important.  My onco said that he felt that chemo/hormonals were about 60/40 in preventing reoccurrence-very important treatment.  Do what you feel is right, though, and be comfortable with your decision.  It is your life after all.

Question for those on Zoladex or Zometa.  First what exactly does the Zoladex do and for Shelley on Zometa at such an early stage was that a recommendation of your onc?  I brought it up with mine and he said he just did not feel that there was enough evidence yet on early stage women.  I don't want to take something that may have SE's or cause damage if I don't need it but I don't want to miss anything either.  What did your onc say?