AI and Hair Loss

[Lucy]

Hi Pat,

This is one of those hard questions because at the end of the day, you have to decide what works best for you. If it were me, I would see the dermatologist before I made any changes in anything - see what they could offer.

My estrogen level was only slightly higher than yours and I made the decision to discontinue all hormone therapies after being on anastrozole and having to go off of it due to increasing liver enzyme numbers. It scares me a little to have made that decision but what helps me with the decision is, according to my oncologist, that as recently as 2 years ago they wouldn't have recommended hormone therapy for someone with as low of an estrogen level as we have. Guidelines were changed about 2 years ago to prescribe hormone therapy to anyone who had any level of estrogen in their tumors. Not because there was evidence that it was beneficial to those of us with low levels, but to be consistent with estrogen positive tumors. At least that's my understanding. So as of now, I'm not taking anything. That may change when I see my oncologist in March but I think that's unlikely.

Also, I read the article posted by Agnes. It's an interesting article and one I would discuss with my oncologist if considering following its suggestions. The only comment beyond that that I have is that it references taking milk thistle to help with your liver and I've been told by several different medical professionals that milk thistle either produces or mimics estrogen so estrogen positive cancer patients should avoid it.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide.