Dr. Jenn Simmons answers a Facebook group member's question about whether stopping tamoxifen will relieve side effects (fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, weight gain). She advises discussing cessation with the medical oncologist, notes that if tamoxifen is the cause symptoms should resolve within a few weeks to a month after stopping, and recommends concurrent health-optimization measures (diet, movement, sleep, stress management, toxin avoidance). If symptoms persist, she suggests they may be due to perimenopause and recommends reading Estrogen Matters.
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Inside my Facebook group, keeping your breasts with Dr. Jen. I got a question from Sam today and Sam wants to know if she goes off her tamoxifen, will she feel normal again and how long will it take for the side effects to go away? She has fatigue, brain fog, forgetfulness, joint pain, weight gain, all the things. Sam, thank you for asking that question. It's an excellent question and I think it's a question that a lot of women on tamoxifen are asking themselves. So let me just first say this. If you are thinking about going off your tamoxifen, and I have no problems with that, but I do think that this is something that you should be discussing with your medical oncologist and make sure that you are both on the same page and in agreement with this plan. So for people who the tamoxifen is causing all of those things, the weight gain and the brain fog and the forgetfulness and the joint pain, if tamoxifen is causing all of that, then going off of tamoxifen should get rid of those symptoms. It may take a few weeks or a month, but they should go away with the cessation of tamoxifen at the same time that people are going off tamoxifen. I do recommend optimizing your diet, which means eating a whole food plant based, grain free, low glycemic diet. Also prioritizing movement, prioritizing sleep, having a sound, positive mindset, managing stress, increasing your toolbox, meditation, gratitude, breathing, those kinds of things and then avoiding toxins, doing some detoxification practices. So if you are doing all of those things along with stopping the tamoxifen, you're both promoting your health and taking out the thing that might be causing your symptoms. Now, if going off tamoxifen doesn't relieve those symptoms, those symptoms may be more of a result of perimenopause than of the tamoxifen. And if that's the case, I do recommend that you start with reading Estrogen Matters by Avram Blooming in addition to your health optimization, which I recommend everyone do, and you do it by doing those things that we just talked about. In addition to health optimization, you may need to shift your mindset around what you think estrogen is and what you think estrogen does. After reading the book, I shifted my mindset entirely. Okay, bye for now.
