femara and joint pain

I hate to tell you but I am on Arimidex and I have joint pain in my hips and knees and my fingers are stiff and swollen -- It started two weeks after I started the Arimidex --- It may be gentler than Femara but for me it hasn't been a walk in the part either -- Sorry your mom is feeling so poorly -- I hope they help her quickly -- maybe she should be taking Calcium with Vitamin D in the meantime

I am a breast cancer survivor for 3.5 years. After surgery, I had radiation therapy, plus taking tamoxifen. My cancer is stage 1 and grade 1Gradually, my hot flash is stopped and my life is back to near normal. I noticed that I always very thirsty, my eyes are dry, my skin, hair also dry. I also have joint pain occurred in joint, both small and large joint.

I was on tamoxifen for 5 years and have been on femara for 3. The back pain and joint pain has gotten horrible. I can no longer stand up straight or walk very far. I am 64 and afraid I will no longer be able to walk soon. I stopped femara 4 days ago. I wonder if any else has had this problem with the very severe joint pain, and if it will go away any time soon. The pain and quality of my life is so bad that I am taking the chance.

I, too, have joint pain and swelling in hands (and sometimes feet) w/femara. I have developed a trigger finger and dequervains tendonitis in bilateral wrist w/thumb pain. Had to go off med for a month and also have sites injected w/cortisone. Never had any of this before. Oncologist said she had seen trigger finger before no dequervains tendonitis? Wondering if anyone out there has had any of these side effects? And what do you think of this? I am miserable w/all this discomfort.

I have been taking Tab Femara plus tab bone one and zomata (inj) from october-2010. Now I started to have in left knee joint pain. I have spoken to my doctor who advises, it could be post chemo/medication caused and may go away with a passage of time. Now i am going to undertake Bone Scan on advise of doctor. This Bone Scan was earlier done which was okeyed by doctor.. What do you suggest I do,. Your advise?

t want to have something kick it up into a flare again. The medical oncologist warned me that it does cause joint pain in some people. She decided on this instead of Tamoxifen because of some other medical issues. If it isn't too personal, I wondered why you asked about Femara causing Fibro? I just want to get back to some sense of "normal" life, with minimal pain.

Side effects seen more often with tamoxifen versus Femara were hot flashes and vaginal bleeding. Joint pain was experienced more often with Femara versus tamoxifen. ref: http://www.femara.com/home.jsp?m=2 Additional side effects for both Femara and tamoxifen are heart attack, thromboembolic events, endometrial cancer and second malignancies. bOTH THE DRUGS CAN CAUSE GAIN IN WEIGHT.

I tried femara for 8 of my 12 months not one side effect until the last time which turned out to be the golden ticket...I had joint and lower back pain, it hurt to walk and I felt immense pain. My RE said it had nothing to do with femara but the moment I started until 4 or 5 days later until the pills were done I had pain. The next day miraculously I was fine, no more pain. This was my experience.

I tried first tamoxifen made me tired and nausous then I tried Femara, the pain was so great in my joints and muscle went off it I am now on Arimidex and 5 months into it it seems ok. I have gone off it once before one of my races because of pain. Arimidex is in the same family as femara only a little gentler..As my doctor said he doesn't know if it will help and it is not chemo but I am 16 months past chemo and have been on an estrogen blocker the whole time.

I took Femara for a short time back last fall, and again this spring. Are any of you on Aromasin, Femara, Tamoxifen, or Arimidex experiencing joint/bone pain? If so, do you find it getting worse the longer you are on it? I finally got off IV chemo in favor of taking AI's because IV chemo was doing too much damage and I needed a break. My cancer is highly estrogen positive so AI's seem to be the choice for me at the moment (I actually have Ovarian cancer, not Breast Cancer.

t tolerate it anymore, they put me on the AI aromasin. For me, the severe joint, leg and hip pain I had (which I also had on tamoxifen and that was one of the side effects they could not control along with hair on fire hot flashes) was more than I could bear. I am off all hormone blocking/AI meds and have been off of them for several months. As time passes the pain seems to lessen and I'm feeling more and more like my old self.

I completed chemo and radiation, currently taking femara. I have so much joint pain and stiffness my activities including work are very difficult. I am seriously contemplating stopping the femara. What are your feelings about this? I know the importance of the drug but am really having a hard time. I have tried altering the time I take the drug and nsaids and still not happy at all.

2 weeks into treatment I started getting side effects like scary muscle pains throughout my body especially in my chest and legs, unable to concentrate and focus, memory loss, joint pain ,anxiety, rage, depression... the list goes on and on. Every time I would call the prescribing dr with a side effect he would tell me it is not from the medication. Before treatment I was super women and after i began treatment i could barely function.

Aromatase inhibitors would be too much for my system with joint pain and the chance for ostopenia or worse, osteoporosis. As much as I miss my estrogen, I do want it blocked because it fed my cancer and I do not want to have to deal with that again.

I was on femara and the pain was so bad. I thought my back and knees hurt from exercise the pain was from femara. all my bones hurt. when i went off it within 10 days the pain was gone. I am now on aromatex although not purfect the pain is minimal and if i swim alot it helps with the pain. there are other drugs that do the same.

In just 2 weeks off of the drug I felt improvement. My oncologist switched me to Aromasin and I have not had the joint pain reappear after 1 year. My last bone density showed a slight loss of mass, so I just started Fosamax a month ago. I'd say give Aromasin a try. Good Luck!

I have been taking Femara since Dec 2009 and started having pain in my hands and trigger fingers two months ago (Feb, 2011) I had injections for the trigger fingers which seem to help and then not. The changes are making me crazy. I have an appt with another hand doc but am worried he will want to operate and it might be safe to stop the Femara. Any ideas out there? thanks.

About the same time I started Femara, I have constant sever pain in my right rib area and now pain in my lower right skull. Bone scan was negative. I know this is likely to be bone mets, but is it possible this could caused by Femara, since the bone scan was negative? This discussion is related to <a href='http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/260483'>Bone metastasis rise in CA2729</a>.

As many of you know or have experienced, the AIs ( Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin), which are used to treat hormone-receptor positve breast cancer, often produce joint or muscle pain as a side effect. For about 20% of women, the side effects are so severe that they stop taking their medicine, which increases the risk that their breast cancer will recur.

But, I have noticed more and more pain the longer I take it. My ankles, legs, knees, arms and wrists get so stiff and sore, and I feel like I'm 90 when I try to get up. I have oral pain meds...Lortab...but I work full time, and it's hard to pop a pill and head out the door to drive an hour's commute. Any suggestions on how to manage the pain?

I was put on Aromasin after I had the Hysterectomy and started having horrible problems, then they took me off and put me on Arimidex and still more pain and always tired. So...he took me off everything for 3 months and I went back and her put me back on the same drug...telling me I was not in any pain!!! After that I left him and went to a new Dr. and they told me that this can happen with these drugs.

Also, I have read that Clomid can lead to endo coming back quicker. Is this true and is it also true of Femara? I am very worried that then endo will come back, and I would really like the Femara to work well!! Thank You!

I used Clomid for one cycle and it worked. Did you ovulate on Femara? Some women with PCOS have better luck with Femara than they had with Clomid.

ve been there and feel your pain. Did you start the femara because you were having really long cycles? I take it you don't take your temperature and chart it?

Greetings: I have hepatitis C and am taking 2.5 Femara. My oncologist and my Hep C doc are at odds about the amount i should take. My Hep C doc thinks i should only be taking 1/2 that amount. I'm at a loss as to what to do. I recently had a liver biopsy which showed no scarring and have had Hep C for almost 30 years. I am worried that the Femara may be doing untold damage to my liver. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Has anyone used Femara or Clomid and a "boost" of injectables and gotten a BFP? I will be doing 5mg of Femara CD 4 - 8 and then 150IU's of Menopur CD 9 - 11. We'll go in on CD 12 to check the follies and then hopefully proceed with IUI. I am hoping for more than 1 follicle. With Clomid and Femara I usually only have one follicle. It is usually nice and big though. Any thoughts would be helpful - any! Thanks..

I have recently taken my first cycle of Femara to make me ovulate. I have PCOS and do not ovulate often. I am now on cycle day 19 and according to my BBT I have not ovulated. Is is a common thing to ovulate late on Femara? If so, how late is too late to hold out hope for ovulation?

My doctor told me the side effects were less with Femara and I guess I thought maybe the pain would be also. On Saturday night (day 12) I started getting horrible pain in my ovary/back. It was excruciating. I could barely walk and not walk up stairs at all. It lasted for about 24 hours and got better but is coming back again. I was wondering if anyone had anything similar with Femara. This is my first time taking this. Thanks!

Femara and joint pain

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