Come join others currently navigating treatment in our weekly Virtual Support Groups! See times and register here.

Help with Lupron, or Alternatives to Hormone Suppression Therapy?

Hello! Grateful to have found this forum!

Questions are at the bottom if you want to skip the backstory. I promise I searched the site before asking questions 😉… so if there is a thread that might help me, please share.

I'm 54 y/o, diagnosed in March with Invasive Ductile Carcinoma, Progesterone/Estrogen positive, HER2-. Stage "kind of a 2" - their words. Although I am 54, my hormones tested around age 30 - I am not even pre-menopausal.

Bear with me, ALL of my test results have been "odd", to the point that I, and my dream team of Dr.s, have struggled with making decisions, and ultimately my Oncotype DX was entirely retested. Final Onco score: 20. That's down 4 points, which is (again) odd.

* In order: I had surgery in June to remove a 3cm mass in my left breast. Despite that the MRI showed clean nodes, cancer was found in one node, so 5 days later I had a Lymphovenus Anastomosis (aka "lymphovenus bypass"). Out of 14 nodes removed, only the one showed cancer.
* I'm not doing chemo or radiation.
* I am scheduled to start hormone suppression with Leuprolide (aka Lupron - not to be confused with Letrozole) asap, no other HST recommended. I will be taking 4 shots over the course of 1 year, then supposedly my hormones will come back to some degree.

Q1: For those who avoided hormone suppression therapy: Is anyone aware of an alternative to chemical hormone suppression, aside from removing ovaries?

Q2: For those who have taken Lupron: Please share your experience, good and/or bad. Has anyone had luck supplementing to lessen the scarier side effects, such as loss of bone density, mental issues, weight gain? Thank you in advance!

Comments