Letrozole brand

I was hoping someone else would respond, since I don't have definite answers. What I can tell you is that this question has come up before, I remember a discussion about it not too long ago, so perhaps it's worth doing a search here in the forum to see if you can find it. I did such a search just now and came up with this:

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/chat-breast-cancer/f/breast-cancer-forum/123873/different-brands-of-tamoxifen/980732#980732 

but I am sure there was something more recent.

Hi Figgy

You are correct that the Femara letrozole does indeed cost £90, I have seen posts from others whose GPs refused to prescribe Femara due to its high cost. I’ve only been on letrozole since late August, first prescription supplied by hospital was Manx brand, my chemist said they would try to supply the same brand to me but in fact I ended up with Accord. However last week the same chemist delivered Sun Pharma brand to me. It’s a mystery how they can supply the Accord three times but then change it to Sun Pharma, meaning in just 3-4 months I’ve had three different brands of letrozole and no way of knowing which brand suited me best. I researched all the brands from the patient information leaflets available online, the ingredients/fillers were all fairly similar but there were two brands which have tartrazine included in their ingredients so I asked my chemist to put on my notes not to supply those brands to me.

With regard to side effects, three weeks after starting the Manx I began having hot flushes, pains in my finger joints and a trigger finger, I felt I could cope with these but the worst effect was the nightly insomnia which has really upset me both physically and emotionally, all these effects continued with the Accord brand. At my follow up appointment at the hospital the doctor gave me a six week break from the letrozole. I was told I could change to Tamoxifen but I’ve decided I will let the doctor know at my next appointment that I prefer to continue with the letrozole (Tamoxifen has its own side effects which I’m not prepared to risk). Since the aim of all hormone therapies is to stop the production of oestrogen it follows that the side effects are caused by the lack of hormones, it’s a dilemma though for those of us who are more affected by these drugs, my diagnosis was ER8/PR8 so I’m not in a position to refuse the hormone therapy.

Best wishes x