Hormone Therapy

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I started hormone therapy(pills) a couple of weeks ago, I’ve had no side effects. I start the Hormone therapy injections in two weeks. I will then be taking the pills daily, the injections once a month for two years.
Has anyone else gone through this treatment? Did the side effects become noticeable, or increase in severity once the injections started?
Thanks,
Mark

 

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Hey Mark, Im on hormone therapy pills, Once the therapy kicks in you may experience hot flashes and weight gain. I've experienced both and it's no fun. You can if experiencing hot flashes ask your urologist to prescribe gabbapentin. I do 300mg 3 times a day and it helps to mitigate some of the flashes. My therapy is 1 pill a day of Orgovyx and only took a few days before symptoms started.

Good Luck and hang in there

 

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I am curious why you are taking them? I also do HRT, but that is due to cancer and having to get my testicles removed (that was the only real choice). It is very hard on me most of the time and I am always looking to learn from others. I seem to have a few problems below the waist that I was not expecting to have as a middle aged man now.

 

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Not sure to whom you are asking, but my reason is that I have advanced prostate cancer. Before radiation the urologist is trying to stop testosterone, which is the fuel for the cancer and is continuing the theraphy for 2 yrs to stop any growth of the cancer that may still be in my body.

 

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Thanks! I have talked that through with my Dr as well. Right now I enjoy the T as it keeps the hot flashes and weight gain away. However, he said that it is possible my prostate my become the next item to address and stopping the HRT will be required. Hoping for the best, but that shot in the leg twice a week does hurt for me.

 

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Hormone therapy for what? Are you a female in menopause? Are you a man becoming a trans woman? We need to know what you’re taking the hormones for before we can advise you.

 

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I’m female. I wear an estrogen skin patch because I went into Premature Menopause after having a hysterectomy because of cancer at a young age. I also take an estrogen vaginal pill insert to help prevent prolapse. I have severe osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in part because I went into menopause so early. Because estrogen can cause other kinds of cancer, even though I’m sterile, I still have to take birth control pills to get the other hormones they provide and regulate, like testosterone and androgen, to help prevent me from getting more reproductive cancer in my colon, for instance. For me, I gain more weight and my hot flashes are farrrrrrrrrrrr worse without the estrogen hormone replacement therapy. Gabapentin, which I take for sleep because of severe joint pain, does not help with my hot flashes whatsoever, and I’ve been prescribed as much as 4800 mg of Gabapentin before. I’m trying to quit taking any Gabapentin at all right now because I think it causes weight gain. I’m currently down to 800 mg.

I have a trans woman friend (male at birth) who takes three times as much estrogen as I do. He didn’t gain any weight but is very health-conscious about what he eats. He is a vegetarian and doesn’t eat much. He does not experience hot flashes but experiences major mood swings and dramatic emotions that he says make him understand women for the first time in his life.

 

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I had my prostate removed…
Mark

 

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While I was getting my radiation, there was an individual who had had his prostate removed, his psa started to rise so they put him through radiation and hormone therapy.

 

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@PapaD I went through the same thing last year due to an upward trend in my PSA readings. The hormonal treatment was rough on me. I didn't take pills, instead I had the six-month injectable. The hot flashes were murder. I gained weight in my mid-section, which I still haven't worked off entirely. I had little to no energy; sometimes I could hardly wait for the sun to set before going to bed. My sex drive was non-existent. Gradually, the side effects went away one-by-one after treatment. I still struggle with ED and incontinence, but both are manageable. Most importantly, the PSA readings have remained near-zero, so the suffering has been worth it. I will get a new PSA reading later this month. Fingers crossed.

 

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@JoelCairo It’s nice to know that at least one man out there has gone through what every woman goes through with menopause (hot flashes, inexplicable weight gain, fatigue, and decreased/non-existent sex drive).

 

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Yes, I got little sympathy from many of my middle-aged female associates.

 

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I get no sympathy from my wife. She says she's now having sympathetic hot flashes and is blaming me for it.. Go figure.

 

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@Mwm1020. I understand you had your prostate removed - presumably because you had prostate cancer. I also assume you are now receiving hormone therapy (followed by radiation?) because your cancer has returned.

I am in a similar situation, so my salvage treatment included hormone therapy with Bicalutamide (Casodex) pills, then subcutaneous injections of Luprolide (Eligard). Your medications may be different, but they likely have similar roles as the ones that I was treated with.

The pills and the injections work in different ways, but have the same purpose: to starve the prostate cancer cells of testosterone. This stops or slows their growth. Radiation then follows if the location of the prostate cancer is known - which kills the targeted cells.

Based on my understanding of those who are on hormone therapy, there is a wide variety in side effects depending on the individual although they generally have similar features (such has hot flashes). This is in part because of the wide variety of medications that are used for different situations which has increased the tools oncologists can use to treat this disease.

For me, the Bicalutamide pills resulted in mild warm flushes that lasted less than 30 secs. For the injections the side effects I experience includes intense hot flashes (may be 10-15?/day but lasting only a minute), muscle/joint stiffness, loss of sex drive, bladder urgency and nocturia (frequent night time urination). I only have mild fatigue and belly bloat but others will experience different effects in different intensities. Since I was also treated with radiation, some of the side effects may be due to the radiation (such as bladder urgency).

The injections have a limited dosage period (1, 3, 6 months I think). My last dosage period ended in May, but the effects are still with me and I expect they will still be with me for a while yet. I try to keep physically active and socially involved. To me, this helps blunt the side effects which to me is a small price to pay to extend my life by (hopefully) many years.

If you are going through salvage treatment for prostate cancer, I would recommend joining the Mayo Clinic Prostate Cancer Support Group discussion forum. The side effects of hormone therapy is a common discussion tread. https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/prostate-cancer/

Hope this helps.