I was not a victim of breast enlargement during my first injection of Lupron or while on Casodex but I do not know if it is any indication that my breasts won't grow once I start ADT again in a few weeks.
Did any of you experience growing breasts while under ADT?
If yes, did they go away after treatment, and how long did it take?
If no, was it through sheer luck or did you radiate your nipples or did you take Femara or some other drug to prevent breast growth?
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Mascouche
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Why are you saying that I've been a member for over 2 years? I registered here in September and then only came back and started to become a regular as of Dec. Two years ago I did not even know I had cancer.
j-o-h-n is the breast man on this site.I'll defer to him.
Gynecomastia is usually not a problem with ADT. It is only usually a problem when a man is taking Casodex monotherapy. With Casodex, testosterone continues to build up in the serum because it can't be utilized by cells. The excess testosterone is metabolized into estrogen, which encourages breast growth. Tamoxifen blocks estrogen in breast tissues. Femara is a bad idea- you don't want to eliminate estrogen entirely- you will feel awful if you do.
Tall-Alan, I can confirm that. Was on Lupron & Casodex for 6 months, then off everything for a year, no breast growth. Then I started Casodex alone off and on for two years and during the time also started taking isoflavone supplements and within a few months I had bags of jelly on both sides, one so painful I had to wear an elastic band around them to keep them from bouncing when I ran. Stopped the isoflavone and they stopped hurting and stopped growing. They do NOT go away, though, without surgery, it seems.
Tamoxifen (20 mg/day) can reverse them if they are new. If they are established and small, cortisone injections can dissolve the mammary tissue. But you are right that if it is established and large, surgery is the only alternative.
I just started Casodex as a monotherapy because I had so many heart related issues while on Eligard/Firmagon. Its a shame it causes breast growth, because without the injections, there seems to be no tachycardia, skipped heart beats and rhythm problems. Doesnt Tamoxifen come with its own set of cardiac related SEs?
If I can get my insurance to approve it, Im going to give the new drug Relugolix a try along with the Casodex . Its appears to be very similar to Firmagon, but with a very short half life. My thinking is that will be better because if I do experience heart SEs again, I can stop taking it, and T should come back up quickly.
My doc said I would gain weight and might grow breasts. But I switched to whole food plant based diet, lost 30 lbs. No problems after two years. I also dropped alcohol, meat, dairy, doft drinks, artificial sweeteners, and processed/refined products.
Your road is similar to min. I was 210lbs in Jan 2020. I dropped all that you've dropped and I now weight 153lbs in Jan 2021. I did not get any breast growth during my first try on Lupron but I didn't know if it was because I was lucky or because I had not been on it long enough.
I've been on Lupron continuously since 11/2018. Started dietary changes 7/2019. But I exercised regularly on through. May be a little bit of everything. My overall SEs besides loss of libido have been minimal, although I worry about LT effects of ADT.
Yes osteoporosis, Alzheimer, heart disease and the likes that are caused by extended use of ADT are nothing to look forward to even if they are better than death. However I know that statistics are a sum of all kinds of people, most of which do not change anything and just follow the allopathic treatment. I am hoping that for people who do WFPB, exercise and supplement themselves adequately with all of the minerals might avoid being afflicted by those bleak outcomes.
15 years from diagnosis here. After several periods of ADT I had moderate breast growth. After Salvage radiation I went more than a year with rising T and no psa so I scheduled breast reduction surgery. My oncologist had listed diagnosis code for gynecomastia on my records for a few years and I believe this is why Medicare covered the cost. I would have paid for it myself if necessary, about 6,000$ at the time. That was six years ago and with return of psa and further treatment the growth returns but starting from zero means it is no more now than before surgery. If I feel I need it again I can do so.
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