Thank you for the information and links. Fortunately, I had a hysterectomy in 2020 so the uterine cancer is not a risk for me. I am not, however, looking forward to tamoxifen and its potential side effects. I hope you are staying healthy and doing well.

I have been on it for just over a year. My side effects have mostly eased over time. My main side effects are brain fog (continues), mood swings (continues), night sweats (eased), and hot flashes (eased).

I was put on Tamoxifen at 20mg daily. Now they use smaller doses. I was okay on it initially. After about a year, the cognitive and emotional side effects got worse. I was taken off it at 15 months. It has taken me a long time to regain my emotional equilibrium.

When I researched this back before I took it a couple years back, there were some women who had NO problems at all. So I would give it your best shot!
In hindsight, tamoxifen side effects did NOT outweigh getting cancer again. At the time, sure, they caused me to feel different and the night hot flashes were intense. That aside, I wish I could’ve started sooner after surgery (but I was considered low risk of recurrence… haha! Proved that wrong!) and then developed a rare lung disease which made me choose to stop treatment and ya know what? The treatment side effects of Tamoxifen were half of the effects of what my lung treatment is and getting recurring cancer, having horrible surgery again and soon chemo, radiation, targeted and possibly more hormone therapy… well, it’s a no-brainer to choose the Tamoxifen over all this!
So, my personal advice would be to carefully consider the downside to not taking it vs side effects.
Good luck.

The AI answer you received is lacking a lot of important information regarding Tamoxifen.

The first time I had breast cancer I was prescribed Tamoxifen, but refused to take it. My odds of the cancer returning were very low and the side effects scared me, especially the risk of blood clots and strokes since I have been high risk for blood clots since my early 20s. Another big risk with Tamoxifen is it can cause endometrial cancer so you will want to make sure you stay on top of your OBG appointments and pap smears. I ended up with endometrial cancer 2 years after my first breast cancer diagnosis and in hindsight I am very glad that I refused the Tamoxifen.

You also have the option of taking a drug that suppresses ovary function and puts you into a drug induced menopause and then you could take an aromatase inhibitor (AI) such as Letrozole, Arimidex, or Aromasin instead of the Tamoxifen. If you haven't already done so, research the side effects of Tamoxifen versus the aromatase inhibitors. Drugs.com is a good site to look up side effects. They give you the most common ones and have a link you can click to see ALL of the side effects. Oncologists aren't always very good about warning cancer patients about the multiple side effects of the different drugs they want us to take so it's important to educate yourself and learn about all the drugs and treatments that are recommended by your doctors. Good luck with whatever you decide ❤️

https://www.drugs.com/tamoxifen.html

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/tamoxifen-side-effect...