Birads 5 with calcification

maggie15

@lisat8228 , I was due to start tamoxifen but the ob/gyn appointment recommended prior to this (I was postmenopausal) found a thickened endometrium which turned out to be endometrial hyperplasia requiring progestin. I couldn't take AIs for a variety of reasons so I rolled the dice and skipped hormone blockers.

At your age you should be on tamoxifen. My issue tends to be found in older women. Tamox does have side effects but many women find them tolerable or take another med to lessen the hot flashes. This article lists all the possible SEs but many people tolerate this med fairly well.

https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal-therapy/tamoxifen

You might want to ask your doctor if you could have a slightly longer break (2 to 4 weeks) after finishing rads before starting. First, it lets your body recover more from the radiation side effects and gives you a better idea of what symptoms, if any, are attributable to tamoxifen. The other reason is that concurrent radiation and tamoxifen can increase the chance of developing fibrosis. From what I have read just a week apart might not be enough distance. I had all kinds of late fibrosis radiation side effects and probably have a genetic mutation (just discovered this year and currently undergoing stage 1 clinical trials at MD Anderson.) My pulmonologist told me it was a really good thing I hadn't taken tamoxifen since in his experience the scarring would have destroyed all rather than part of my lungs. You most likely have nothing to worry about (my medical history of thyroid goiter, upper GI bleed and Barratt's esophagus were red flags) but an extra week generally won't make a difference to your long term outcome and gives you a longer break to avoid interactions.

I hope you have an easy time on tamoxifen.

scaredme

@lisat8228

Just catching up here.. I am assuming that you are all done with radiation. Congratulations!

Wondering how you are doing on Tamoxifen?

scaredme