Look away now if you do not wish to delve in to the female 'nether regions' or read anatomical descriptions! Okay, for those of you who can take it, I will tell you my tale. A year ago I was prescribed Letrozole (brand name - Femara) for breast cancer. It did its job, shrank the tumour so much that the surgery I subsequently underwent was far less radical than had been originally planned.But.... what this drug does is completely stop the production of oestrogen... and my cancer was oestrogen positive (meaning the little blighter fed off oestrogen). However, oestrogen also has GOOD POSITIVE things to do in the body chiefly to keep the vagina lubricated and the whole of the female nether regions in good working order. So.. take away the oestrogen and bingo - NETTLES IN MY KNICKERS! My bits dried up... I got fungal infections... any pee landing on my bum cheeks sent me screaming off into outer space.
I mentioned (very coyly) problems to the surgeon at my last check-up in August but he muttered about it being the best available drug for my type of cancer and I scuttled away. (Well you do, don't you? Surgeons are God, after all!) I visited my GP who prescribed anti-fungal creams which helped but still left my vagina bone-dry and uncomfortable. However, this morning on my check-up visit with the oncologist I actually plucked up the courage and told him about the NETTLES IN MY KNICKERS.
This oncologist is probably in his early forties, charming, urbane... I'm fair fat and sixty! I am not of a generation who talks willingly of my 'bits'. Accompanying him was a young doctor (not introduced... come to think of it, he could have been a kitchen fitter for all I know!) and a very young nurse. You need to know this to know how desperate I was to speak up about this problem... it was like taking a run up to jump off a very high cliff. I could not even look at young doctor (or possibly kitchen fitter person) or very young nurse but spoke to charming urbane oncologist... and he had the 'charm' to sort it without me wishing to climb further under the floorboards.
Result - change of drug to Tamoxifen together with another drug Vagifem. The Vagifem is a locally applied oestrogen which is dispensed via a device similar to a Tampax applicator. In other words - a plunger with a tablet inserted which one inserts into the vagina and it shoots the 'pill' to stick to .... something... not sure what! This is only short term whilst the Letrozole works its way out of my system and the Tamoxifen takes over. Both drugs have their side-effects but it seems Tamoxifen will not whither my bits. Watch this space!
At the Marsden they ask for your consent in writing before they let students loose on you, and whilst I did sign the consent form I have yet to meet one. This makes a change from The Royal Free hospital in Kings Cross, London where I received ante-natal care in 1966 - the little beggars were everywhere! They trooped around in droves and always seemed to appear when I had my legs up in stirrups and my bits in full technicolour view.
We are obviously around the same age and how well I remember white lipstick! I can remember plastering on the make-up, loads of black eye-liner, purple eyeshadow, lashings of mascara and white/very pale lipstick and then presenting myself to my father. Well, you can imagine his reaction - I think his exact words were: "You look like a corpse someone has just dug up! Now go scrape that muck off!"
On the subject of big breasts - your comment put me in mind of a film (it may have been Doctor in the House?) where a well-developed young girl is being examined by a doctor who tells the girl to take big breaths. She looks down at her chest and replies with a lisp, "Yes, they are, aren't they?"
Oh, poor you. I hope things are settling down in the nettle patch lol. I had a bout of cystitis when in my teens and shyly went to see my old male GP as I couldn't stand the discomfort anymore. I told him that I had pain every time I passed water to which he said "well stop walking near rivers then"!. I suppose he thought he was being amusing but I was mortified lol.
Absolutely loved all the comments but as someone who is about to have to chose some method of keeping the oestrogen at bay, please can I ask, do all the aromatose inhibitors do that or just Femara. Does Tamoxifen dry you out too? I was surprised it's ok to have any form of oestrogen, even if locally applied some distance from the breast! Please can someone help - if I have to give up my sex life for 5 years I'll be too old to ever get back to it and my long and unpleasant reconstruction experience will just have been a waste of time lol.........
