Advice needed ... Tamoxifen or AI?

[linn65]

Hi there,

I am not sure how old you are, but I had the same exact question. My first ONC did all those blood tests to see if I was post menopausal at 47 or 48 and they came back, and I was. Then I went to a 2nd ONC and she said that wss a useless endeavor because all of the therapy and tamoxifen would show that I was because its supposed to be shutting down your estrogen.

Now, I sm 49 and had a reoccurrence, and I am not on arimidex. It has I think caused my joints to feel like I have arthritis. She is letting me go off for 3 weeks to find out which I started this week. I am also on Herceptin and projecta so it could be that too. However, again I might have had progression so I will be having scans next week and If I have I will get TDM1. And then who knows what SE's I will have. Another day in the life.....

She did say tamoxifen was tried and true for 40 years and I was premenopausal when I started and I should stay in it for 5 years and then we would discuss an AI but reoccurance happened so treatment path did too. Hope this makes sense and hope things go well for you!!

[Becky]

My story - I did not gain weoght on Tamoxifen or Arimidex. That said, when chemo was over, I was 46 so I was automatically put on Tamoxifen. Herceptin wasn't. Available right then so I wanted to do everything possible to help myself since I had a positive node. I wanted Armidex. Got the bloodwork and it showed I was post menopausal so I started. At almost the same time, Herceptin was available - yea. Started Herceptin alone. Well, low and behold, I get my period. Onc tells me to stop Armidex and go to gyne for ultrasound. This takes 2 weeks for appointment. That ultrasound shows that I am about to ovulate again (double ovulation - one one each side). So gyne said, do you want to schedule an oophorectomy. So thats what I did. Now Anyone who knows me knows I think alot. So about a year later there is an article about Arimidex being used off label to assist in ovulation issues in premenopausal women for infertility issues. Seems it can help. I'm thinking no s... as I was double ovulating. So I think I wasn't truly quite there in menopause. My fsh/lh was there but I bet my estradiol level probably wasn't and Arimidex did its "infertility" fix on me since I wasn't quite menopausal. So my advice is make sure your estrogen panel is done. Estradiol and estrones. If they arent in the menopause range, Arimidex won't work and you wont know it for 6-8 weeks till your period suddenly comes back. What a freak show all that was.