Tamoxifen is a drug that has been prescribed for many years to help treat breast cancer. In 2004, this drug was made available for the first time to women who were about to have a baby. The medication is an anti-estrogen, which is like a drug that makes your boobs grow. The drug works by blocking certain hormones produced by your body that are responsible for making your boobs grow.
In the early 1980s this drug was also used to treat women with endometrial cancer, which is a cancer that originates in the lining of the uterus. The drugs tamoxifen works by blocking the production of estrogen in the uterus. When estrogen is blocked, the tumor stops growing. With tamoxifen, women are able to have their breasts grow back to the size they were before their cancer was diagnosed.
Tamoxifen has been the most-used drug for women over 40, as opposed to for younger women (which is why we’re seeing new warnings about it in the U.S.). For the most part, the drugs used to treat endometrial cancer have actually been banned for use with women over age 50. This is because that is when the risk of breast cancer increases the most, and the drugs don’t work well for older women.
Because of this, the FDA has added a new warning to tamoxifen warnings. “Due to the FDA’s risk/benefit analysis, it is no longer considered appropriate and likely unsafe to use tamoxifen for women over age 50, who may be at increased risk of developing breast cancer.” The FDA does say these women also have a 30% increased risk of dying from the side effects of tamoxifen, but I am not sure that is accurate.
While the FDA does include tamoxifen in the warning for older women, it does still say this risk is increased for women over age 50. There is also no mention of tamoxifen in the same category for women under age 50.
That is all for this edition of the Tamoxifen-For-Women 2020 Series. We’ll talk about tamoxifen safety in a more detailed fashion in a future column. In the meantime, this article is meant to provide some insight into the latest FDA warning for tamoxifen.
In general, tamoxifen is considered a relatively safe drug when used at recommended doses. But Tamoxifen Side Effects.org lists a number of side effects, some of which are severe, and the list is growing.
Tamoxifen has many side effects including weight loss, weight gain, breast tenderness, hair thinning, fatigue, nausea, hot flashes, weight gain, anxiety, depression, and depression.
In my opinion, tamoxifen is one of those drugs that is a little too good at making people feel good. When the drug was approved, they said that it could prevent blood clots. I’m not sure if that was true, but it is at least worth noting.
Tamoxifen is actually a drug that has been approved by the FDA for use as a fertility drug. This allows women to use it to treat breast cancer, and I have to wonder if they thought that would cause women to lose their periods, which could lead to infertility. At the very least, this is why we should be using it to treat breast cancer.