Hi I am new here. Letrozole side effectd

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I have a recurrence of breast cancer after 19 years. I am having a double mastectomy on Wednesday 10/8/22. Started Letrozole 3.5 weeks ago. Knee pain so bad this week had to go to A&E. Anyone else had this

Thanks in advance

  • Hi

    Sorry to hear you are in pain 

    Lots of people  complain of joint pain on letrazole and they say that you should try different brands as some are kinder than others. If changing brands doesn’t help the your oncologist might be able to switch you to another drug.

    My oncologist told me the first 6 months would be the worst as your body gets used to it and she was right.My joints do ache sometimes so I take a couple of painkillers and take the dogs out and it wears off with exercise.

    I think there is a whole thread on here somewhere with information about what people have tried. Put Letrazole into the search bar and you will get lots of information.

    I hope all goes well with your operation 

    Take care x

  • Thanks very much for your reply . I will discuss all of this with my oncologist when I go for my biopsy and surgery result

  • Hi there catwoman

    I had achey knees, ankles and knuckles after 6 months on Letrozole. The hand was getting worse to the point that I thought I should no longer drive in the mornings. When I mentioned this to my onc she immediately switched me to Exemestane. She said no promises it would be better, but worth a try. It took about 6more months for the Letrozole effect to wash out, but hand and knees now completely better, just one ankle which is a wee bit gripey first thing in the morning, however it is fine once I start to move it again. For me exemestane has given big improvements. Long may this continue.

    Hope you get some relief.

    All the best

    WallyDug

  • Thanks very much Wallydug. I will speak to the breast surgeon on Wednesday .  Hoping if I do need to change , I only started Letrozole a month ago so hoping it won’t take too long to come out of my system. 

  • I'm on anastrozole..was awful at first . Stopped and restarted it twice. I had such bad wrist pain and carpal tunnel syndrome I got my gp to put a steroid injection in.my wrist. But after about 8 weeks it all settled down and now almost 3 months on is fine.

    Hang on in there xx

  • Thanks Bobbiboo. It’s really good to know others have had side effects and it’s settled in time.