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Progesterone for adjunct therapy for breast cancer

by Joy

Three years ago I had lobular breast cancer. I underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. From there I was put on Tamoxifen for 2 years then Arimidex for 3 yeras. I have completed my Tamoxifen regime and am almost a year into my Arimidex regime.

In the last month or so I have been experiencing some very disconcerting side effects from the Arimidex - swelling in my hands and wrists - similar to rheumatoid arthritis. I went off the drug for 2 weeks and experienced a little bit of relief and have since been back on it for 1 week and my symptoms have increased. A good friend who is a pharmacist has said I should go off the drug and go on to Progesterone instead. I am tempted to do this but had a couple of questions - I'm not sure if it was on your website but I thought I read somewhere that it was made from the plant steroid diosgenin found in fenugreek and soya - both of which I have been told are estrogenic foods and should be avoided.

Also, I live in Canada - I pray this would never be but if it reoccured I fear (I hate that word) that I would be denied further treatment because I didn't follow their protocol. Any comments you can make would be greatly beneficial. Thanks.

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Nov 11, 2009
 Progesterone for adjunct therapy for breast cancer
by: Wray

Hi Joy. I would agree with your pharmacist friend. Arimidex is an aromatase inhibitor with many adverse side affects, you might like to read about them here.

Progesterone does suppress oestrogen, as does Arimidex, but with no side affects. You might like to see this web page on progesterone and cancer.

Although progesterone comes from soy beans, there is no soy in the cream, only progesterone. Plants such as the soy bean, Dioscorea species of yams, fenugreek and many more, contain phytosterols, two such are stigmasterol and diosgenin. As these sterols have a similar molecular structure to progesterone, they are used as starting points for the bio-synthesis of progesterone. This is then further broken down to oestrogen, testosterone, cortisol etc for use in HRT, testosterone replacement, cortisone etc. I can't answer about being denied further treatment, although it strikes me as appalling if you are. You might be encouraged to read the following story from Maz. And another here. Take care, Wray

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