Side effects of Zoladex and hrt - Endometriosis UK

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Side effects of Zoladex and hrt

liverpool8 profile image
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I have stage 4 endo consultant says I need zoladex for six months he said to alleviate the symptoms he would prescribe one hrt tablet to be taken daily. I am also worried about the side effects of hrt like Strokes and blood clots. I am 49 and otherwise in good health grateful for your advice.

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liverpool8
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laur87 profile image
laur87

Hi!

I have to admit that I don't know much about the side effects of hrt, however I've been on zoladex for 2 months now and although the side effect s of that can be a pain sometimes, it hasn't been enough to take hrt, I would say start without and see how u get on! They can always prescribe it for u later if u find symptoms unbearable. Good luck with it! ☺ x

Impatient profile image
Impatient

I would ask your consultant why he wants to put you drugs to alleviate pain on temporary basis when surgery is what you actually do require to relieve pain on permanent basis?

Is is simply that you surgeon cannot fit accommodate your surgical needs as yet? ie the waiting list is a long one.

IF that is the case then my advice is you have lasted all this time without GnRH - carry on with the regime you know very well while waiting for the op - rather than risking short term hell on GnRH and possibly long term consequences too (e.g. cognitive impairment lost with the drugs when you are in middle age may not resolve. - as I know to my own cost and it is debilitating and dangerous to no longer be able to rely on short term memory at what is still a young age.)

and here's another documented case dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

It's no joke being left unable to remember whether you have left the fire on, left the keys in the door, where you are supposed to be driving to, what you have arrived at the shops for, whether you have taken your meds or even eaten a meal. These are not forgetful episodes where the memory can be jogged - you just didn't retain any memory at all.

Research showed 80% of middle aged on these drugs suffered cognitive impairment due to the drugs and of those 40% were stuck with it afterwards.

But for some reasons best known to themselves - this does not appear on the patient advice leaflet.

If I knew then what I knew now - I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot barge pole and more.

The side effects of the drugs themselves are far to numerous to list- they are cancer drugs and the strongest you ever likely to have in your life time and for what good reason are they being prescribed?

They do not kill or cure endo cells or repair the damage caused by endo.

They are prescribed to pause the endo that is all. One benefit is that it MIGHT give you relief from pain.... guess what - the right pain killers will do that too without any of the risks and all the dreadful impact on your body that th GnRH drugs can have.

And for how long ..6 months max.

Thats 6 periods, or if you took the BC Pill back to back 3 months at a time - 2 periods.

Either way much better that you take meds when you need them - rather than having something as powerful an unhelpful as GnRH coursing through your body 24 hrs a day.

HRT can offset some side effects but not all, and can itself cause side effects too.

GnRH is not the solution for endo. It is fobbing you off, and costing money and productivity and your health when what you actually need is surgery sooner.

Do your homework on these drugs and their implications for the middle aged - the impact can be quite a different one to that experienced by the elderly or the much younger - as research has shown.

Armed with the knowledge and countless personal experinces which are documented online- then make a decision weighing up the risks you are willing to take with your own long term health.

This statement by Mr Cooper (endo surgeon)

"In order to avoid treating just the “tip of the iceberg", the only logical approach must surely be surgical removal or excision of disease. Disease overlying the ureter dictates that the ureter be dissected free and retracted from the surgical site. Disease overlying or involving the bowel dictates that this organ be mobilized, and dissected free from the disease. Herein lies a problem. Certainly in my country (US), the surgical training of most Gynaecologists has not equipped them for such dissections.

So patients continue to be treated with surface ablation for deep disease, avoiding the danger sites, with resulting treatment haphazard at best. **Even worse they are subjected to multiple courses of hormonal therapies that are known to be ineffective,** interspersed with multiple laparoscopies to “see how there disease is going". These are about the only patients who do not need a laparoscopy to diagnose endometriosis."

from his very informative website mjwcooper.com.au/patient-in...

Dr Redwine - one the world's top endo docs (recently retired) has been tirelessly campaigning gainst GnRH

"Dr. Redwine has completed his review of the studies which brought Lupron to market. The review has solidified his opposition to Lupron therapy as an expensive drug with many serious risks but the only benefit being temporary partial pain relief in some women who take it. Many women who have taken Lupron have complained of long-term or permanent after-effects. The complaints of such women have been... dismissed because there seemed to be no way to connect taking Lupron for 6 (or 12) months with side effects lasting several years or permanently after discontinuation of the drug. From one of the very first Lupron studies, Dr. Redwine has identified a possible biological explanation for such reports of lingering problems after stopping Lupron. Due to the seriousness of this finding, he has forwarded his report to the FDA for their review."

Here is his previous report to a US court lupronvictimshub.com/home/R...

There are numerous 2st hand experiences posted on this forum and many others

lupronvictimshub.com/index....

lawyersandsettlements.com/a...

Lupron also known as Prostap, and Zoladex and Decapeptyl and various other names - are all the same in that they overload and shut down the pituitary gland in the brain often with dire consequences.

Make sure you have done your homework before you make an informed decison whether to go had or not. Refusing to take the drug will not prevent you having surgery. It is your choice and you shouldn't be cajolled or brow beaten in to starting the drug because your consultant asks you too. They are human and just as capable of researching the drug as you are. Many chose to ignore doing so -or accept the drug manufacturers research as gospel while at the same time happily availing themselves of the perks and kickbacks from the drug companies.

In the UK, medics do not have to declare to anyone what insentives they are paid to promote drugs on to their patients.

To my mind if the world's most eminent endo surgeons are set against GnRH use then that tells me all I need to know. The risks far outweigh any palliative benefit.

in reply to Impatient

Hello impatient.

I completely agree with your views on GNRH. Absolutely dreadful group of drugs!

How can we get the surgery we need if the doctors say no or if our case is too "complicated " ? Some GP's refuse to refer ladies to Endo specialist centres as the treatment is too expensive.

We all deserve total peritoneal surgery but the reality is that this surgery is too expensive. And very few of us have enough money to pay for private treatment.

Would love to hear your views.

Barbara x

Shubhra-Rastogi profile image
Shubhra-Rastogi

The benefits of HRT are so that they outweigh the risks and side effects of HRT. If HRT is administered in proper dose, type and form then it can alleviate the risk associated with it. As with any medication HRT also has side effects. The common side effects are headaches, indigestion, vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, and nausea and breast tenderness. There is also a small risk of developing cancer and blood clots. Do discuss with your P regarding the dose and type of HRT.

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