Anastrozole

Please could anyone give me some advice, I’m so worried about my mum. She was diagnosed in May with Lobular breast cancer, she had a full mastectomy, lymph node clearance, only one (sentinel) node had cancer in - the rest were all clear. She has now been having Radiotherapy - a 21 day course. The biggest problem is the hormone therapy drugs that she started taking. She is 79 & she was very fit & active, now she is  basically house bound & cant walk even a few feet without extreme pain in her joints, muscles & bones. She is becoming very depressed as she is in constant pain & she said she has no quality of life. Just wanted to know if there is anyone on this site that has been affected badly by these pills & do the symptoms disappear or will it be like this for the next 10 years

Parents
  • Sorry to hear your mum is suffering side effects of Anastrozole. I've been taking them since February 2019. At first, no real side effects, but for,the past 3 months or so I've had chronic back, hip, knee and wrist pain. I can't take NSAIDs as I'm on blood thinners and Paracetamol are of little help. I was always a very fit person but the side effects have curtailed my walking and swimming.

    id be pleased to hear of any other hormone drug that has fewer side effects. There are also horror stories about Exemastane too!

Reply
  • Sorry to hear your mum is suffering side effects of Anastrozole. I've been taking them since February 2019. At first, no real side effects, but for,the past 3 months or so I've had chronic back, hip, knee and wrist pain. I can't take NSAIDs as I'm on blood thinners and Paracetamol are of little help. I was always a very fit person but the side effects have curtailed my walking and swimming.

    id be pleased to hear of any other hormone drug that has fewer side effects. There are also horror stories about Exemastane too!

Children
  • Thanks for your reply Abimeister, I’m so sorry that you’re suffering so much as well, it must be awful, I can’t even begin to imagine!! My mum was also very active before all of this, she’s 79 but you would never know, she had a bone scan yesterday & now she has an appointment with the consultant in 6 weeks & we can discuss the tablets then, I will ask if there’s an alternative, surely there must be - as she said she can’t take these for much longer, thanks again for taking the time to reply xx