My oncologist had a very interesting approach to Tamoxifen. He said that of all the hundreds of thousands of women who have taken it and not had recurrences we will never know if they wouldn't have stayed disease free ANYWAY had they never taken it! He agreed to run a prognosticating calculator on my specific case and found that it would only benefit me 1% to stay on it. At that point I had endured 6 months of foot and leg cramps that had become unbearable through the night and vaginal atrophy and dryness that made intercourse extremely painful. I went off of it and never looked back. That was almost 5 years ago now. TAmoxifen dies not benefit every er+ woman in the same way (and mind you my er+ was at 95%) so it had nothing to do with that. It's based on age, your type of surgery, chemo, menopausal status, tumor type, grade, stage, etc. too many factors to make a blanket statement saying all women should take it! And yet most doctors just prescribe it not even knowing if you benefit from it or even metabolize it! Press your doctor for a prognosticator like NewAdjuvantOnline so YOU can make an educated decision about your options. The calculator will tell you recurrence risk and mortality rates of women exactly like your personal case. And they are each so very different!! I think my oncologist was just as shocked as I was to learn that it wasn't doing for me what it seems to claim.

Don't. Do. It!!! I let my doctor pressure me into this. 2 years later, I have a hip fracture, a wrist fractures do had an ankle fracture in May. My bone density has decreased by 100%. The side effects will probably kill me. I had stage 1 cancer. What a bunch of BS

Craftygirl is right. My chances of a reoccurrence are 4% if I don't take Tamo and 2% if I do. Some doctors refer to that as a 50% reduction. They are right but you need to see the statistics for your age and diagnosis.

I am currently having radiation treatments, but will start Tamoxifen when I am done in 2 weeks. I am LOATHE to take this drug for the reasons you state, but have resigned to the fact that I have to take it. It will reduce my risk of recurrence from 30% to 15%. That is no small feat. I am taking this drug so my 3 year old will grow up with a mother.

I had a partial mastectomy last September and the oncologist recommended me taking the drug. My chances of it coming back would only be reduced by 3%. That's not enough for me to take a drug with that many life altering side effects. I won't do it.