I was stage 1 invasive no lymphnodes involed and have been on tamoxafen for 1 1/2 years, hot flashes were horrible in the beginning i still have them but not as bad the gave me xanax to sleep at night. The very worst side effect for me is chronic pain this drug seems to deplete your body of hyaluronic acid and your soft tissue and skin will not hold moisture and it is painfull.
I started taking hylauronic acid and doing the melt method they help but taking hylauronic is controversial some research says it causes cancer but others say it does not. I go to my oncologist at the end of the month and plan to have a conversation reguarding it.

Deann - for what it’s worth - mine is ER+ PR+ HER2 - as well - my first oncologist was going to blindly put me in @ tamoxifen- same thing felt like everyone gets @ tamoxifen 🙄. My second one rammsome other tests etc and also collaborated with a naturopathic oncologist - they both decided the risk outweighed the benefits for me ( factor IV ( blood clots )MTHFR, family hx etc...). I believe mine were in the 70ish %. They recommended I not take it after all. It’s contraindicated for me - and they both called it a death sentence for me in the sense of PEs and DVTs. My recurrence risk was less than 4% so taking it would make my risk 2%. That wasn’t enough for me to take on all the side effects and risks etc. I’m ok with the fact I can’t take it - helped make the decision a little easier- and the fact both doctors agreed. ( also I had a friend that was DCIS but 99% + and they didn’t recommend for her either). All doctors and protocols are different- do you research- ask your questions and at the end of the day the decision is the one you can live with. We all worry about recurrence no matter if we take it or not I don’t take anything. - @A MyBCTeam Member - you were really weak Hormone %? And decided against it too? Anything you take?

@A MyBCTeam Member

My diagnosis sounds similar to you - except I think I'm much older! As you probably figured out with chemo, the type and severity of side effects really varies, so Tamoxifen side effects might not be terrible for you. The side effects from my A.I.'s have been OK for me. Good luck!

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A MyBCTea...

I take letrozole, but you have to be post-menopausal or shut down your ovaries with shots.

@A MyBCTeam Member thank you for such a detailed response. I’m not DCIS unfortunately. I’m invasive. Had surgery with negative margins which was good; however, they removed 12 lymph nodes from my axilla and 1 had cancer in it. Also my ki67 proliferation rate was 70% which is super high AND I was rated a grade 3 (cancer cells highly differentiated). All in all, stage 2B. Looks like I’ll be headed to the Tamoxifen party 😒

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A MyBCTea...