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I feel that the ablation of my ovaries due to chemo seems to have caused premature aging of my body. I am adjuvant with no nodes, and ER-. I was premenopausal before the treatment and was thrown post-meno.
I now have very dry "aged" wrinkly looking skin. No no longer grow hair in my arm pits or legs, (Great not having to shave!) but wonder what has happened to ALL my hormones, not just the obvious estrogen and progesterone. I assume that there were other hormone quanitity/quality changes as well, but have seen no research on this topic. Additionally I can no longer engage in sex, have chemo brain and have stiffness in my leg/ankle joints. (This last 2 symptoms seems to be slowly fading as I am nearly a year out from chemo)
I went to a specialist regarding lack of sex hormones and she is going to have my blood analysed and I assume prescribe the usual... topical ointments and perhaps testosterone. But from what I understand, you only get a shadow of what you had back, so the concept isn't that "thrilling" me.
So now I am seriously considering the idea of requesting total hormone replacement as though I weren't cancerous. As far as I can tell, all hormone suppression/replacement therapy is based on research for ER+ patients, and nothing on the topic for ER-. Essentially, I might be forced to follow a protocol that would do nothing to effect the survival stats of the ER- subgroup. I am also concerned about the lack of ER on my bones, as I am extra-ordinarily fine boned anyways and can't afford early demineralization.
I am also wondering about the premature-aging effect on my body that I appear to be observing. Haven't seen anything on that topic either.
Has anyone got any info that they would like to share with me on these two topics? Has anyone actually pursued the route that I am contemplating? I have no idea how the doctor will even react to this suggestion.
Looking foreward to your comments,
Merridith
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