peptide arimidex FAQ

Some Arimidex side effects can get worse over time. However, some mild side effects may go away or improve over time. These include nausea, headache, and dizziness. For some people, side effects may occur off and on throughout treatment, such as hot flashes, joint pain, or insomnia. Your doctor can also discuss symptoms of Arimidex side effects to watch for. If you experience any such symptoms, especially if they are severe or bothersome, be sure to contact your doctor right away. Your doctor will monitor you for certain side effects that could become serious if allowed to worsen, such as thinning bones or high cholesterol levels. Your doctor will likely order tests before and during treatment to monitor for these changes.

When you stop taking Arimidex, the drug that’s left in your body will be gradually broken down by your liver. How long Arimidex stays in your system can vary from person to person. But most of the drug is usually removed from your body within about 10 days. While in your body, Arimidex works to lower your estrogen level. This hormone level will stay low for up to 6 days after you’ve stopped taking the drug. This is the period of time until your body starts to gradually begin making estrogen again. If you had side effects related to low estrogen, such as hot flashes, these should start to lessen as your estrogen level increases. Stopping Arimidex doesn’t cause withdrawal symptoms. (Withdrawal symptoms are side effects that can happen when you stop taking a drug that your body has become dependent on. With dependence, your body needs the drug to function as usual.) And stopping Arimidex suddenly (sometimes called “stopping cold turkey”) should not cause any problems for you. If you’ve been taking Arimidex to lower the risk of your breast cancer coming back, clinical trials show that your risk is still lowered for at least 5 years after you stop treatment. (This applies to people who’ve taken Arimidex for about 5 years of treatment.) If you’re thinking about stopping Arimidex, talk with your doctor. They can discuss with you the risks and benefits of doing so.

No, you should not crush, split, or chew Arimidex tablets. Instead, you should swallow them whole. If you have trouble swallowing pills, talk with your doctor or pharmacist. When you get Arimidex from the pharmacy, the pharmacist will add an expiration date to the label on the bottle. The expiration date helps guarantee that the medication is effective during this time. The

It’s not likely that you will. In fact, side effects of Arimidex usually go away once you’ve stopped taking the drug. However, Arimidex can weaken your bones while you’re taking it. And some females can develop osteoporosis from this. (With osteoporosis, you have thin, weak bones.) You also have an increased risk of breaking a bone with Arimidex treatment. But one clinical trial found that after stopping Arimidex, the risk of breaking a bone was no longer increased. If you’re concerned about long-term side effects or permanent damage caused by Arimidex, talk with your doctor. They can discuss with you the risks and benefits of using this drug.

If you forget to take a dose of Arimidex, take the missed dose as soon as you remember. However, if it’s almost time for your next dose, just skip the missed dose and take your next dose as usual. Don’t take two doses together to make up for a missed dose. To help make sure that you don’t miss a dose, try setting a reminder on your phone. A medication timer may be useful, too.

Like all drugs, Arimidex doesn’t work for everyone. And this drug is less likely to prevent breast cancer recurrence if your cancer is estrogen receptor-negative (ER-negative). (ER-negative cancer doesn’t need estrogen in order to grow.) One clinical trial looked at Arimidex as adjuvant treatment for breast cancer in females who were postmenopausal. (For adjuvant treatment, Arimidex is given to lower the risk of the breast cancer coming back or spreading, after it’s already been treated with surgery.) In this study, breast cancer did come back in some people. It came back either in the same breast, in the other breast, or in another part of their body. Over this 5-year study, breast cancer came back in 10.4% of females who took Arimidex. In comparison, breast cancer came back in 12% of females who took the cancer drug tamoxifen for adjuvant treatment. Out of the females whose breast cancer was hormone receptor-positive (HR-positive),* cancer came back in 8.6% of females who took Arimidex. In comparison, of those with HR-positive breast cancer who took tamoxifen, up to 10.2% had their cancer come back.

Arimidex can lower your estrogen level by about 70% after 24 hours following your dose of the drug. The level will typically be lowered by about 80% after you’ve taken Arimidex every day for 2 weeks. Your estrogen level may stay this low for up to 6 days after you stop taking Arimidex.

Arimidex will start working soon after you begin taking it. But you won’t be able to notice this. Your doctor may order different kinds of tests during your treatment to check whether the drug is working for you. Alcohol isn’t known to interact with Arimidex. However, if you have certain side effects of Arimidex, drinking alcohol could worsen them. These side effects include headaches, dizziness, nausea, and tiredness. Drinking large amounts of alcohol while you’re taking Arimidex can increase your risk of osteoporosis (weak, thin bones). Because of this risk, it’s best to avoid drinking large amounts of alcohol during Arimidex treatment. Alcohol is also known to raise your risk of developing breast cancer. But at this time, it’s not known whether drinking alcohol after you’re diagnosed with breast cancer can make your cancer worse or make it more likely to come back after treatment. If you drink alcohol and you’re concerned about how this could affect your breast cancer or its treatment, talk with your doctor. They can give you advice on how much alcohol, if any, is safe for you to drink. Arimidex can interact with several other medications. Different interactions can cause different effects. For instance, some interactions can interfere with how well a drug works. Other interactions can increase side effects or make them more severe.

A 2015 review of breast cancer studies looked at survival rates after using certain hormone therapies for early breast cancer. (With early breast cancer, the cancer hasn’t spread from either your breast or the lymph nodes in your armpit.) According to this review, taking an aromatase inhibitor, such as Arimidex, for 5 years reduced the risk of dying from breast cancer within the following 5 years by 40%. This means that people taking an aromatase inhibitor for 5 years have a 40% lower risk of death from breast cancer compared with people using no hormone treatment. If you have questions about survival rates for people taking Arimidex, talk with your doctor. Keep in mind that results of Arimidex treatment may vary from person to person.

Arimidex is meant to be used as a long-term treatment for breast cancer. If you and your doctor determine that Arimidex is safe and effective for you, you’ll likely take it long term. The length of time that you’ll take this drug depends on the type of cancer you’re using it to treat. Below we describe the typical length of time that Arimidex is taken. But to know for sure how long you should take Arimidex, talk with your doctor.