Iceni explains how her body reacted to 6 years of hormone therapy.

Transcript

I was on Arimidex for 6 years and I had nine bad side effects out of the 11. It was horrible. Finally some doctor came down from another province and said “Stop that.” But it was to kill all my hormones so I feel like I’ve aged 10 years for every year because no estrogen means arthritis and all sorts of rapid stuff that you get when you get older without your ovaries or whatever.

If I hadn’t had those anti-hormone pills for 6 years I wouldn’t feel so creaky and achy and wrinkly as I would have done had I not had those. I would have sort of aged gradually I think, and maybe have aches and pains gradually because I would have had estrogen.

That drained me dry of estrogen that was the worst part. I could put up with the cancer and that, but it was this premature ageing with no estrogen. Women need estrogen, some of these movie stars they’re 80 and they’ve got estrogen still because they’re getting it. And so, I think that was the worst part. That was rapid, within about a year of being on those pills, I was aching and out of sorts and hurting and stuff. And I realize that I’m ageing as well but there’s a difference.

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