Was on Tamoxifen for about one year, then had a complete hysterectomy + oophorectomy. Then, my Onco put me on Femara. Been taking it for 10 months. I feel horrible most of the time... hot flashes, bloating, aching muscles and joints, fatigue and lots of weight gain. Taking clonodine patch and effexor for hot flashes and 1000 mg of naprosen for the muscle pain. Triamterene for bloating. Ambien for sleep. Way too many meds... I feel like a walking pharmacy. Is anyone experiencing these problems? I have decided to go off of Femara and all other associated drugs that are to treat its side effects for a brief vacation.... to see how I feel..... Hope I'm not putting myself at risk.
I hesitate to offer you advice without a full assessment, but, your symptoms (irregardless of the CA) sound a lot like Estrogen Dominance. One does not need ovaries to produce estrogen. We get synthetic estrogens in our diet all the time. We are exposed to them in our environment. So my suggestion has to do with mediating the estrogen in your system (which also happens to promote cancer growth), which is why the femara was prescribed.
The best way to mediate or balance estrogen is with progesterone. Unfortunately, progesterone production falls off rather quickly with age (unlike estrogen which declines much slower). And nothing works better than natural progesterone (which cannot be patented and hence, cannot be prescribed). Try a natural progesterone cream. It will balance the estrogen and stop the hot flashes, bloating, mood swings, hair loss, sleeplessness, edema, etc. BUT, it is not a quick fix and you should not expect results for 2 - 3 months. If you stick with it, you will notice a remarkable improvement in one year. So much so that you will forget to apply the cream, but remember to continue to use it anyway.
I use "Natural Pause", you can purchase it online and it works like a dream. I use it for pre menopausal symptoms and I can't say enough about it. My hair was falling out by the handfuls, I couldn't sleep, bloating, weight gain, etc. Now I am loosing weight, have long hair, and sleep for 8 hours at a time. For more information, look up Dr John Lee's book "What your Doctor won't tell you about menopause", it is chock full of all kinds of information regarding womens health (some nice bits about cancer as well).
Hopefully you are doing well and that this information helps. Lorelei