I've been on it for about a year. At first I had some bone pain especially in my knees. Also insomnia and my hot flashes have been jacked up into overdrive. After a few months the knee pain improved. (I took curcurmin as my doc recommended) The insomnia and hot flashes never improved. Lately the knee pain came back with intense fury, where some days I was limping like an old lady. My onc changed me to tamoxifen and I'm due to start that now.....Ive been dragging my feet bc I like that I'm feeling good. Wish me luck.

I switched from Femara to Arimidex because I felt so awful. I actually love Arimidex. The only side effect has been the good old desert vagina. Unfortunately, I think I might have to go back on the Femara. I hate Femara.

I've had monthly zolodex (similar to lupron) and arimidex for about two years now. It's true there can be a ramping up of hotflashes, but for me that's subsided. I get maybe one hotflash per day and it's mild at this rate. Joint pain is minimal thanks to regular curcumin/ boawellia. Thoracic weight gain is a bother, although I think that part and parcel to any menopause experience, medically forced or natural.

I get what your saying about unease with the knowledge that medication is on your schedule for the next five years...it seems to fly in the face of health to be pumping all this stuff into us.
It just goes to show how serious this is, though: big threats call for big action.

In my experience with my infant and his cancer, it was verrrrrrrry hard to reconcile putting these sorts of things into him. The way I could tolerate it as a mom was to put equal investment into doing all I could to support his restoration with adjunctive care (nutrition, supplementation, prayer, you name it). And this approach I carried through to my own cancer experience. In the end (of each) I felt reasonably good that my concern about the chemical aspects of tx actually caused me integrate multiple modalities, resulting in a sense that I was carpet-bombing cancer in a way I hadn't expected.

Toni, you might put "arimidex" and/or "Lupron" in the search field at the top of the Q and A page...you'll find many questions with many more answers on this very subject.

((Hug))

I was nervous too when I started, but surprisingly, no side effects. I do take it at night so I don't worry about it.

Pretty much no side effects because I take it at night but I do notice a lot of fatigue, no appetite, joint pain sometimes. Nothing bad, not having an appetite is aggravating I just have no desire to eat but can't tell by looking at me..