Tamoxifen side effects

The chemo and the hormone tablets both cause menopausal symptoms and they are really frustrating. The night sweats esp as they disturb sleep as well as being unpleasant. I have drenching sweats too and hot flushes. I use an app called stella, but have heard there is another one called balance that are both aimed at helping women through menopause. I have found the advice on stella so very helpful. It is tricky as we can not take hormone replacement therapy.

Sage tea can help ease sweats for some people. Magnesium supplements help in some, others swear by evening primrose oil or CBD tablets. Caffeine, alcohol, spicy food (for me, even ground pepper) and sugary food/drinks all make sweats and flushes worse. There are some plant herbal remedies to avoid because they contain oestrogen, like black cohosh for example. 

You can put an ice gel pack under your pillow so it is cold to flip over in the night when you get hot and also have a good fan. Sleeping in cotton nightwear allows your body to breathe a little easier at night. 

Apparently the first 6 months on hormone tablets are the hardest and then it settles down. I just tell myself that I am halving my recurrence risk and that makes me take the tablet each morning. It is not easy but I hope some of these ideas might be useful to try.

I had this from chemo-induced menopause before I even started the tamoxifen!  As well as the measures zephyr suggests, If you’re really struggling you can also take a low dose of certain antidepressants.  I’ve started Venlofaxine which has really helped.  I still have flushes, but not the drenching sweats I was having before.  I used to wake up with wet top and sheets which then made me freezing cold, but as soon as I changed and got warm again it would set off another flash!  Now I still get warm and throw off the duvet but as I don’t get wet I can just tuck myself in again one it’s over.

Just make sure you’re not prescribed paroxetine or fluoxetine.  They both strongly reduce the effectiveness of tamoxifen. There’s an interesting table in this article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3922061/ which might be helpful.