FEMARA
Comments
-
Thanks, the more I read I tend to think I will go on it again. I do want a couple of months break. I have a goal to live till 100. Janet
0 -
I am 6 weeks on Letrozole (pink generic pill for Femara) and am now having joint pain and trouble sleeping because of it. Is this what I have to look forward to and does it go away with time? Any suggestions on how to get relief?
0 -
Ginger, there are a few different generics and I have heard that some are better than others when it comes to the SE's. Could I suggest that you have a talk with your Pharmacist and perhaps try each one until you find the one that gives you the least SE's? I'm sorry to say, there are always SE's but even though I have very few I still have the common ones as in dry skin, dry personals, dry hair and nails and some fatigue but I don't get the aches and pains. I live in Australia and get the original Femara.
Might I also add, that if the SE's are really bad and are really interfering with your QOL, you can always ask your onc to change you to one of the other AI's. Please give them some time as the longer you are on it the better a lot of the SE's become for most people.
I have arthritis and because of that have joint pain all the time and I take fish oil and boswellia to help with the inflamation and recently, after explaining the possible se's, my doc started giving me Vit K as an anti-inflamatory and that is working a dream. For sleep, I use and have recommended Melatonin. This is available over the counter in America from most health stores and pharmacies. The dosage for each person differs but the usual is about 3mg and taken about 15 mins before bed. We naturally produce Melatonin but because of age and illness, the production tapers off hence the sleeplessness. If your problem is just falling asleep, the ordinary pill will do just fine but if your problem is staying asleep, then the time release one is better. To find the right dosage for you just play with the amounts as you can take up to 20mg safely but as I said earlier most people find that about 3mg is perfect.
Hope this helps a little. Good luck!
Love n hugs. Chrissy
0 -
Thanks, Chrissy, I will talk to my naturopathic dr about the vitamin K and melatonin. I already take the fish oil.She has me take magnesium before bed. I had not thought about talking to the pharmacist; I did not realize there are different generics. My ONC said to try it till June when I see him and then we will talk about it. My mom was on arimidex and she was miserable from the SE so I am a little afraid to switch to that one. I do not have any trouble falling asleep but I wake up with cramped shoulders, elbows, etc and then have to find a new position. I usually fall back to sleep quickly but it is just a constant breaking up of my sleep that is wearing me down.
0 -
What dosage of fish oil & magnesium do you take?
0 -
Ginger, I was on Arimidex to start with and if there was a SE to be had, I had it and then some. I didn't have any QOL at all so my doc changed me to the Femara and I am my almost normal self and I laugh again. That was the first thing my DD's notice and commented on. My point being, just because your mom had a problem with Arimidex doesn't mean you will. We are all different and react to the drugs differently so just because you have a problem with one, doesn't mean you will have a problem with another in the same family. I agree, broken sleep is the pits!!
If my memory serves me correctly, I think there are four or five different generics. The active ingredient is all the same but it's the fillers they use that cause us a lot of the problems. Good luck with your research and I hope you manage to find one that suits you better.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
0 -
Tenaj, I take 2000iu of fish oil and 300mg of magnesium. You need to be careful with the magnesium as it can cause diarrhea if you take too much.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
0 -
My doctor talked me into taking Letrozole (generic Femara) on Monday. I awoke Wednesday with ringing in my left ear (tinnitus), constant ringing. It has not stopped. I'm going to call her tomorrow to see what if I should continue taking this medication. I can, barely, hear out of my left ear. If it's not one thing, it's another!
I knew that I didn't want to take this medication!
0 -
TooManyCocktails that is one of the SE that does go away after a couple of weeks.
0 -
Good to know, Chrissb! I was thinking that I'd have to deal with this for the rest of my life (however long that may be?). Thanks for sharing this info with me. I guess, I'll take tonight's pill. I'm really paranoid about this medication. . .Whew! I can't even explain it??? I guess, it's because I had bad reactions to the Tamoxifen and Arimidex. I did find out that I am a CYP2D6 intermediate metabolizer; so I shouldn't have been on the Tamoxifen in the first place!
0 -
I know what you mean, it turns out I'm allergic to Tamoxifen and the Arimidex for me gave me no QOL and such depression I would have rather be dead but to my surprise, once my body got used to the Femara, it feels like I'm taking nothing at all I feel so good. Here's hoping it works that way for you too.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
0 -
I am so glad to read you last post to say that your body got use to Femara, I have just joined the group and just started on Femara, so far no side effect other that a few hot flushes but after reading this I am so scared of what is to come. I have spoken to many ladies at the hospital who said they could not tolerate the hormone therapy the doctors had put them on. I thought when nothing happened after taking the Femara they must have been on someting else. Now I'm not so sure. I was on Tamaxifen for 3 years till my cancer returned with little side effects. Hope this will be the same!
0 -
Joy, you may not have any of the SE's that you have found on this thread. There are a great number of women taking this drug that have, other than hot flashes and dry skin, no SE at all but they are the ones who do not post here. I wish you all the very best and hope your non se's keep going.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
0 -
TooManyCocktails I too have the ear ringing and was told there was 'no way" that the generic femara caused it. Hmmm. I also had a cataract double in size in the year I was on the generic. I finally asked doc to be switched back to the name brand.
0 -
Janet...you can see my DX below. I had chemo, rads and am into my Femara 3 3/4 years. Originally my Dr. said after the first 5 years of taking it I may have to do another ten years. It made me cringe because I heard that it did higher you cholesterol and causes Osteoporosis which I already had. Now he says it's only 5 years for me and when I asked why, he said they have found no evidence to prove that it is helpful anymore after another 5 years. I am happy about that because I can't imagine what my bones and overall body S/E would be after 10 years.
You on the other hand were on Tomaxifin which is a totally different animal. It's not an AI so I can see where your Dr. may think think this is a plus for you to take it. Femara is an Estrogen inhibitor. Even though woman are in menopause, we still secrete the stuff from out Adrenal glands and Pituitary glad. Yippee!
0 -
Thanks Artsee, I am hoping to hear from my Onc today. I just want to see if I can take a small break from it. janet
0 -
Pat634, how long did the ear ringing last for you? I sure hope that it wasn't the whole year that you were on it.
0 -
TooManyCocktails I still have it but the really annoying ear ringing started just before Christmas of 2011. But I keep taking the Femara because the alternative (cancer recurrance) is worse.
0 -
janetlp - what did your oncologist say? I spoke to mine and asked about me taking a "letrozole vacation" for a month each year. She said it was fine, but she also said that I may regret it, as my body is adjusting to the letrozole, and to take a "vacation" may simply have me run through all the SE's again. So, I may reconsider.....
I took tamoxifen for about 6 month, (had to stop as it turned out I was allergic and the SE's were horrendous - my mother, on the other hand took it for 10 years with NO problems). My oncologist is including that 6 months of tamoxifen in my 5 year hormone therapy, though, so it'll be 4.5 years on letrozole.
0 -
I have to asked.... with this conversation on taking vacations from Letrozole or Femara.
Does the drug stay in your system for a month? Is there no concern that being off will allow estrogen to sneak back into the body? I'm unclear why Dr.s would say it's OK to do that. Has anyone knowledge to answer this, after really discussing this question with your Onco?
I won't see mine for a while.Thanks.
0 -
Hi I don't think in my opinion it would be a good idea to take vacations from the drugs. In my case I have finished five years of tamoxifen with no breaks I just wanted to take two months off to see who I really am. I had a rough five years on the tamoxifen .I have heard different things about the femara You see percentages can be deceiving. Let's say you have 1000 Women 500 on a placebo 500 on the Femara 2% on the femara get a reoccurrence 4% on the placebo get reoccurrence. So in the studies it comes out as a 50% increases your survival rate. So in the big picture it was actually 2%. Also in the studies it was mostly high-risk women. So my point on this is if I'm low risk. I need to weigh the risks of SEs compared to the survival rate. my oncologist will be calling me today and I'm going to be asking him. Janet
0 -
I also read online 10 years on the tamoxifen actually had higher recurrence rates. So my biggest concern is 10 years of drugs. I think this is a very individual decision on your pathology , risks and quality of life.
0 -
What grade was your tumor? (Janet)
0 -
HI, it was actually stage 1 grade ll. Janet
0 -
Artsee, I don't think the drug stays in your body for a month. In fact, I believe the oncologist said it "washes out" fairly quickly. My oncologist says that I need 5 years hormone therapy - total. She said it does not need to be unbroken - just a total of 5 years. I do not know what she bases that on, though.
0 -
My oncologist said that the joint pain is worst during months 1-3. Did anyone find that it did get better after a few months? I"m 6 months in and have had some lower back pain, but I also have poor muscle tone after chemo, and getting back to sitting in a chari all day could be giving me that even without femara.
0 -
I found that the joint pain was much better by month 9. That was also after I found the correct dosage of omega, and all the other things I now take including tylenol for arthritis twice a day. Hang in there.
0 -
Google why you should not take Femara every other day, or stop for days at a time................I was surprised at what I saw......................I have some SE's, but again I'm 76 and at this age who doesn't have aches and pains, bujt honestly I do believe it is the Femara causing it, but until it puts me flat on my back I will continue...............I'm not trying to live forever, but I don't want to deal with recurrence in another part of my body ............BC was bad enough.
About the generic...........................I have heard of many who went from Femara to the generics and got, new, more, or worse SE's.........so as long as I can afford to take the Brand, I will.........it is very expensive, my co-pay is over $200 for a 90 dau supply.
0 -
ducky....with the price difference from Femara to generic I'll suffer with the elevated s/e's.
A little over a year ago. The price went from $568.00 to $22.00 at Costco for the generic.(30)
Picked up my prescription yesterday and the total was down to $16.00. Wow..what is up with such differences in price?
0 -
I have take the Femara and also the generic and i cant tell any difference still have aches and pains.So i decided to take the generic and save me about $400.00 a month. I can handle the aches and pain and put extra money for groceries and gas
0
