The 5 year pill

Hi Dizliz

Welcome to the forum and I am sorry that you have been diagnosed with breast cancer.  While I don't have your dilemma I noticed that you haven't had any replies yet so I thought I'd reply to you to move you to the top of the discussion.  Hopefully someone will along shortly to answer your questions.

Best wishes

Daisy53

Hi Dizliz

I took Anastrozole for 5 years.  You may be on Letrozole or the same I expect.  One thing I did find was that the coatings of the tablets can be markedly different and for me this is what caused side effects.  Initially I was given Accord brand and at one point Accord was unavailable (around Brexit time, I seem to recall) and I was given Consilient brand.  Almost immediately everything began to ache.  I had some Accord in stock, so switched back and I was fine.  I tested the Consilient brand later, to check and it happened exactly the same - so I looked at the tablet coatings.  When I did that research, I found Teva brand had similar coatings to Accord - so I got those from my pharmacy for the next few months and was fine on them.

You can search the tablet coatings by using Google to see what brands there are available on the NHS and perhaps trying different brands before you give up on them.

If that doesn't work, I know there are other ladies who have changed to Exemastane.

I hope this helps a little.

Best Wishes, Lesley

Hello

I'm on Anastrozole, for the last 3 months I've had really bad joint pain, and getting worse.

Here's the spreadsheet I did for the Anastrozole brands then.  It's not exhaustive because as soon as I found out which ones were ok for me, I stopped researching. 

I can't upload a file, so I've just had to copy it into this post.

It was either Povidone (K31) or Macrogol 400 vs 300 which affected me so badly.  Worth trying a different brand to see if it helps.

I had Accord or Teva brand only written on my prescription slip by my doctors once I knew I was ok on either of these 2.

Hope it helps,

I’m on Anastrozole also 7 months now and it took about two months for my joint pain to become a real problem. I’ve had various brands and no positive change for me. I’m told I can come off it or switch to one of the other two AI’s, but coming off is not mentally an option for me and I was told if I got joint pains on this one, I’d likely get them on the other two but switch other side effects (of which I have plenty). Rock and a hard place for sure. Quality of life has massively deteriorated, but I keep telling myself that I’m alive and wouldn’t want to blame myself if the unwelcome visitor lingers or returns. You’re not alone, it’s a real hard one!