About to start taking Letrozole, what are the side effects?
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5 posts since
26 Aug 2020
Hello I am about to start taking Letrozole
think I spelt it right
if anyone has taken this please could they tell me if they had any side effects
thanks
4099 posts since
11 May 2016
Hello Binkey and welcome to the Cancer Chat forum.
We have some information about the side effects of letrozole (which you did spell correctly 
) on our website just here but I’m sure some of our members who have experience of taking this will pop by when they can to share their advice and experiences with you.
If you’d like to have a chat with one of our nurses about letrozole then you’re welcome to give them a call on 0808 800 4040. Their phone lines are open Monday – Friday between 9a.m – 5p.m.
Kind regards,
Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator
197 posts since
4 Sep 2019
Hi Binkey,
I’m on Letrozole so I can tell you how it is for me, but you could get a dozen replies, all with different things to report. I was a real baby about taking it because I decided I was too old to deliberately take something that could make my life longer but miserable. I waited for two months after all my treatment then my GP said the magic words that made me start taking it. She said, “It is really good at preventing the cancer from recurring. If it makes you feel really bad you can stop taking it but if it doesn’t make you feel too bad, it’s a win, win situation.” She was right!
I’ve been taking it for six months now. At first I felt a bit queasy at first but not for long. I went off my food for a week or two and lost half a stone. Yay! Alas, when my appetite returned, so did the weight! I found that taking the tablet at bedtime helped. I got hot flushes, still do get the odd one but only briefly. I have noticed that my fingers get painful and the third finger on my right hand sometimes sticks down and clicks a bit when I open it. I get a few more aches and pains than I used to. I’m quite stiff when I get up in the morning but it wears off as the day goes on. I get a pain in my shoulder and arm that’s new but I’m an old codger, and recently fell and landed on that side so these pains could just be old age. As things stand I’m not ready to stop the Letrozole, yet!
I hope you get a few more replies so you will have a more rounded view of what’s to come. Many people feel the side effects are worth it for keeping cancer at bay and if I had been younger with responsibilities I would have probably taken anything that was offered that could do that.
Christine xx
5 posts since
26 Aug 2020
Thanks finding it hard to work this site don’t seem to be able to reply to the person that sent me a reply
it’s seems itcc xx will let me reply to you ok
5 posts since
26 Aug 2020
Thank you very much for replying
my main concern was weight gain and hair loss
I am 62 if you don’t mind me asking how old are you ?
i have had a right side mastectomy and it was in my lymph nodes
I get a lot of chest pain and armpit pain
do you?
It has been 5 months since my op
Yvonne X
197 posts since
4 Sep 2019
Hi Yvonne,
It’s just over a year since I went to my GP with a puckering on my left breast. I knew that was a sign of cancer even with no lump. I had a 4cm invasive lobular cancer in my left breast and a nodule in my right breast that turned out to be fat necrosis so was benign and left alone. I chose to have a mastectomy, without reconstruction, despite my surgeon promising to give me the pert breasts of a 22 year old. I was 72 at the time! I did try for a double mastectomy but he wasn’t having it. I could go for the second one, now, if things were normal but my daughter says she couldn’t go through the trauma of it all again if it wasn’t necessary as I then had to go back the following month for lymph node clearance after he thought he felt something in one of the sentinel nodes that he removed along with my breast. I had another 6 nodes removed and they all turned out to be clear. I found that surgery harder to recover from than the mastectomy. I’m not getting much pain, now, but I did for a good few months. When I mentioned the pain to my breast cancer nurse all she said was, it’s early days so you are still recovering. The only ongoing problem I have is fluid retention and lymphoedema in the mastectomy site. I do special exercises and have had laser treatment at the lymphoedema clinic.
i don’t think I’ve gained much weight, apart from the half stone I lost in the first week or two from not wanting to eat anything. That came back with a vengeance once I started eating again.
i haven’t noticed hair loss, as in seeing it in my hairbrush or the plug hole but just this last week I have thought the texture is changing. I have quite fine hair, anyway, and it just feels finer than it used to. I’ve actually just used a thickening conditioner tonight before I saw your message. It feels better for that.
i haven’t had my proper checkups, my six month one was supposed to happen in April so all I got was a telephone call. That happened again in July and I got a letter this week telling me to go for a mammogram in September, my one year anniversary. I don’t know if that will happen yet with all that’s going on. I think if I had any concerns I would have been seen personally but I’m doing fine!
I hope you do as well.
Christine xx
5 posts since
26 Aug 2020
Thanks again for your reply
Thats good to know.
its good to chat to someone who knows
I find a lot of people don’t understand
yheyvthink you had the op and it’s all done and dusted but mentally and physically it’s not. Hope you have a nice day
X
145 posts since
17 Jun 2020
Hi
Now been on letrozole for a year. Had a lot of joint pain but that’s eased in last few weeks. I now just take pain medication at night, because it’s in my system I think it helps during day too. I used to shuffle around like someone with bad arthritis before this. Keep moving as in walking or swimming if you can. I cleared it with oncologist to take glucosamine with chondroitin. Not sure if it helps or not but not doing harm. Takes three months before you know if it’s doing anything but with my pain medication it’s not clear.
Post mastectomy, lymph node clearance, chemo, radiotherapy, herceptin. Still on zolendronic acid and hopefully starting neratinib in October. Have lymphoedema in arm. Happy with no reconstruction. Working on surgeon for second mastectomy to balance me up. It’s a work in progress lol. Because I have grade 3 aggressive cancer I’m willing to put up with the various side effects I have from my various treatments. It’s an individual choice we choose for ourselves.
My thoughts on cancer are that we all wake up in the morning and we all hope to climb into bed at night. Yes cancer may take me next week, who knows, but a bus could run over someone tomorrow. Or reading yet another cancer leaflet I fall and break my neck 
5 posts since
26 Aug 2020
Hello
thank you for your reply
You have a lovely sense of humour.
I am on my 3rd week of taking it. I have had a mastectomy and it was on my lymph nodes.Yhis is my 2nd time of having it.
I had it at 39 and now again at 62
Hope you get on on it was lovely to hear from you x
About to start taking Letrozole, what are the side effects?
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