Careful with this drug, it has nasty withdrawals, and also antidepressants can cause suicidal ideation, there are non drug ways of treating depressoin, 20 mins in sunshine, good diet, CBT, loads more, herbal products, but if you are on pharm meds, be sure to check with pharmacy that whatever herbal product you may decide to take, ensure it does not interfere with pharmecutical meds and have nasty effects.

Thank you for your response , I do take lots of herbal , I eat a clean diet all of the above really , I just can't  cope emotionally I wake up crying  . 
I often find myself in mid conversation with someone then for no reason burst into tears and I feel so lost , I can't really explain it and always been anti drugs , Have you ever taken these or  expericiend how I am feeling ? 

Hi,

i feel you need a chat to your doc about changing to another hormone inhibitor.

My onco put me on anastrozole, we had a good chat and she advised me this was the best tolerated one. I've been on for 9 months now and although it's not exactly been plain sailing I'm doing ok on it. It took around 3/4 months for things to settle, my main side effects are hot flushes, problems sleeping and now ( oddly) intermittent rashes but I'm happy to report no mood changes.

Have you been prone to low moods in the past? Of course added to all this we're coping with a nasty virus and lock down, it maybe all building up? But don't sit and suffer there are other alternatives, you could ask for a hormone holiday? My onco offered me one ( a few weeks) to see how the side effects went but I didn't take up the offer but I feel when your experiencing moods changes it's Defo worth chatting it through, our moods affect absolutely everything, please don't suffer...a good starting point would be your cancer nurse? Chat it through with her? 

Good luck love ️

Hi Marlyn

yes spoken to him but he advised the anti- depressant which I believe is common , however I will go back to him as really can't tolerate this and reading the side effects of this drug there is no way I am going to take them . Never really suffered low mood before like this , I wake up crying everyday it's awful.
 

thankyou for replying

M x  

Hugs to you it must be awful to wake up crying every morning in this early springtime.

I wonder if a pharmacist can advise you of a herbal antidepressant that wont interfere with your other drugs?

Hi M1,

I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with Letrazole. I have had 2 bouts of breast cancer in the past 10 years. My first surgery was a lumpectomy, followed by Tamoxifen. A year later I found another cancer in the same breast and had a bilateral mastectomy, followed by Letrozole for 6 years. Most of the hormone therapies have side-effects of some type or other. I had a lot of problems with my emotional wellbeing on Tamoxifen. These were not so bad when I changed to Letrozole, but my joints all gave me trouble instead.

One of the first problems I noticed with Tamoxifen, aside from my emotional state, was that I started having a terrible time with absolutely satturating night sweats. I tried the usual medications prescribed for this, but they had no effect. Eventually, my breast care nurse suggested that I should try Venlafaxine, as this had helped a number of her patients in the past. I have now been taking this for nearly 10 years and, although it didn't stop the night sweats, it has helped. There is a problem with most anti-depressants, in that you cannot just stop them. You need to gradually wean yourself off them, but this can be done. I have not received any side-effects to Venlafaxine.

When I changed over to Letrazole I had considerably more bother with all of my joints and, had to have bilateral knee replacements during treatment.

Don't try any homoeopathic or alternative medicine without first discussing this with your consultant, as many of them are contraindicated with cancer treatments.

Whatever you decide, I hope that you find something to help you feel more like yourself again.
Do please stay in touch and let us know how you get on. We are always here for you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

I've been taking venlafaxine for some time and for that reason. It was a game changer for me. I only wish I'd known sooner

I've just got off the phone with my oncologist. I was originally on Tamoxifen, but I wasn't coping with the side effects (terrble night sweats and chills), so I've been on Letrozole for the last three months. I've been on Citalopram (anti-drepressant) for a few years (a very low dose) and I did try to come off it in the summer, but I found I just couldn't cope, I got depressed and anxious and this made my sweats much worse.  The oncologist has just suggested Venaflaxin as this can help with menopause issues, so I'm going to give that a try.  For me its all about being able to cope with life and continue to function. Lockdown and cancer is a lot to cope with, and I really don't want to become a cancer victim, so I will do whatever it takes to continue to feel as positive as I can in these challenging times. 

hi im currently taking letrozole and considering asking for this antidepressant ...another anxiety of mine is weight gain ..have you experienced this on venlafaxine?

have you experienced weight gain on this drug? as this is a anxiety of mine aswell as hot flushes low mood irritability and total no interest in mysrlf or leaving the house etc