Is Hormone Therapy Worth the Risk?

Paula, I think it all comes down to risk/benefit. The best decision is the one that is best for you! The type and extent off your cancer play a role, your age and your goals are all factors. Quality of life can certainly be impacted by these medicines. And then, some people have very few, if any side effects. You can try them and stop if you get side effects. For now, I have decided not to take them and opt for diligent monitoring

Monitoring - yes - that’s my thought also. Have an appt with my oncologist next week as I am now 10/20 radiations and she wants me to take tamoxifen 10 mg every other day for 5 years starting 2 weeks after radiation ends. I got the results of the blood test for DNA the one that tells you if you’re predisposed to other cancers and it came back negative. I was stage estrogen positive. I would prefer to carefully be monitored and not have 5 years of a drug that so far on here not one person has posted positive things about

Making treatment decisions with complex health factors can feel overwhelming, especially when there are personal experiences that add to the concern. These are exactly the kinds of important considerations that deserve thorough discussion with the medical team who knows the complete health picture and can weigh all the specific risk factors involved. Many others in this community have faced similar difficult treatment decisions and may share insights about how they approached conversations with their doctors.