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This thread has been interesting and surprising to me---I didn't realize herceptin could cause problems as well as chemo. Since my third BC mets (and first her2) were discovered in 2004, this has been my experience: I only had six months of chemo (navelbine) along with herceptin, and then just herceptin and femara, about 15 months all together until I was taken off herceptin because of a very low ejection fraction. I have been on femara for 3 years now, nothing else for cancer, but am also on several heart meds. My once thick wavy easy-to-manage hair is now thinner, dry, frizzy, breaks easily and is totally unmanageable, although I didn't lose much of it. In fact it is so unmanageable that I just bought a wig for special occasions, because even when I have my hair "done", it won't last overnight! The picture on my posts is about 2 years old now, and that is how my hair used to look! My always long eyelashes got thinner but have grown back fairly well now;however, my left eyebrow never did grow back and the right one is almost non-existant, so I have to draw them on. And I now have extremely brittle fingernails with vertical grooves and ridges. They break constantly no matter how short I keep them. No toenail problems so far. I kind of thought all this was just from getting older, but I see from your posts that I'm not the only one having these problems. I am sure that a lot of the worst side effects, these we've been looking at and others we have mentioned earlier, are also caused and aggravated by lack of estrogen---in my case, 5 years on tamoxifen and 3 years on femara. (And all after menopause!) Destroying all our estrogen may help keep BC at bay, but at what a price of femininity! I know all these things may be somewhat trivial compared to all the other horrors of BC, but I hope someone will give us some ideas of what, if anything, can be done to improve the situation. In the meantime I guess all we can do is keep a sense of humor and share our ups and downs with each other! I learn so much from all of you, and it helps so much to know I am not the only one going through these frustrations! I am so grateful for this website which allows us to "be there" for each other through thick and thin hair and eyebrows! Hugs, Tricia
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