Experience with Lupron

Archives1

Archives1

Staff member
I had robotic prostate surgery in Aug 2020. My blood work this month showed detectable PSA levels. My urologist wants me to take Lupron shots for a year to slow it down. One of my buddies took Lupron and had horrible side effects, immediate weight gain of nearly 30 lbs, depression, low energy, etc.etc. Does anyone have experience with another drug that was successful? I'm seeing the oncologist next week for a second opinion. Thanks!
 
I had radical robotic prostatectomy in Aug 2018. All pathology reports were great; however my psa did not go to 0 and gradually increased over the next year. Numerous tests, MRI, and a biopsy of a small lump in the prostate bed were all negative. I went to the Mayo Clinic in Aug 2019 and had a special test with radioactive isotope. Mayo Clinic was sure that the small lump was prostate cancer. They recommended radiation and 2 years of hormone treatment. I ultimately had 1 yr of hormone treatment coupled with radiation. The hormone treatment takes away testosterone which is the fuel for prostate cancer. The radiation kills the cancer cells. I have some side effects from the hormone treatment and from the radiation - which are expected. Mine have been mostly minor, but everyone is different. My psa has been 0 for the past 6 months. Much info is available online, but use reliable online sources like John Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, etc. So do your research and talk to different Drs. And ask God to guide you. Wishing you the best.
 
I had robotic prostate surgery in late July. Post op pathology showed a small positive margin and involvement of one seminal vesicle, Gleason score of 7. I began beam radiation therapy 3 months later for a total of 38 treatments over 7.5 weeks. The radiation oncologist wanted to do hormone therapy at the same time as he said it increases the chance of total cure but Lupron was in short supply nationwide so that didn't happen. My PSA after the radiation was non-detectable but my urologist wanted to go ahead with hormone treatments because it was now available so I received the 6 month 45 mg shot on December 30th. Both he and the oncologist say that the overall effect will be the same as if I had done both therapies at the same time.

Side effects of the radiation was mostly just fatigue but not too bad. So far with the hormone therapy I have noticed fatigue that is a bit worse that the radiation was, some weight gain and a slight rollback in continence. But I'm just a little over a month into it - hopefully it will not get worse. I visit the oncologist in April and urologist in June. My PSA will be tested both times and hoping it's still non-detectable!
 
I'm starting to see some swelling of my lower legs and feet which is another side effect. But I'm doing OK - spent about 2 hours yesterday with a chainsaw cutting some small trees down and survived that OK LOL.
 
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