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Side effects of Bicalutamide

User
Posted 23 Feb 2020 at 15:43

I mentioned in a previous post at the beginning of the month that my partner was having a psma pet scan following a CT scan which showed an enlarged lymph gland in his pelvis.  We were given the news on Tuesday that there are 20 lymph nodes affected from his pelvis to his shoulder. He began taking Bicalutamide and Tamoxifen on Thursday.


He has been quite tired and had an upset tummy for the last couple of days and was feeling what he described as not himself last night and I just wondered do the side effects kick in so quickly. 


 


 

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

User
Posted 23 Feb 2020 at 19:57
Yes I was on 150 mg Bicalutamide per day and 20mg Tamoxifen per week for 11 months. It hit me really hard in the first month and then I just carried on as normal in virtually every way. It was mainly utter fatigue.
Good luck
User
Posted 23 Feb 2020 at 22:47

Thanks Chris, I have read your posts with interest and found them really helpful. 🙂

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 09:52

Chris, did you suffer from any form of sleep disturbance when you started the Bicalutamide? My partner has been on it just under three weeks now and is waking early hours of the morning which he never did before. Im unsure of this is just another side effect or if it could be depression. 

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 12:20
Hi Annie I’ve had insomnia for a long time so it would be hard to pinpoint that. I had very very few side effects on Bicalutamide and was lucky. Maybe he is getting hot-flushes in his sleep which are awakening him ?
User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 13:10
Annie, I was on bicalutimide for 18 months, finishing a few weeks ago. Like Chris, I found fatigue the most significant side-effect, but because of that fatigue, it made me sleep like a log. I've honestly never slept as soundly as when I was on HT.

Best wishes,

Chris
User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 13:45

Annie, I found this post very interesting, I am about to start bicalutimide soon & your comments really give me an idea what to expect.


regards


james

User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 18:44

Hi Cheshire Chris, Yes I sat and read through your posts over the weekend and thank you for sharing your journey :) 


Having had cancer myself I have experienced the fatigue which is what makes me wonder if the sleep disturbance is due to the bicalutamide or if it is more related to getting his head around the latest diagnosis and all that going onto HT entails. :) 


 

Edited by member 11 Mar 2020 at 18:46  | Reason: Not specified

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 18:58
Coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis can be a difficult process. Not at all surprising that it would cause sleepless nights. You do come to terms with it eventually, though, and the knowledge that you have cancer becomes the new "normal". It's just a matter of time.

Very best wishes,

Chris
User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 19:10

Im afraid it's all a bit like treading water for me at the moment James as I am trying to support my partner by finding out as much information as I can. We haven't been together as a couple very long although we have been friends for some time as I was recovering from the after-effects of colon cancer when he was diagnosed in 2017 with his. 


I found myself having to deal with my own cancer journey very much on my own and so want to support my partner as much as I possibly can. We do have a local support group which we visited last week and chatted to a great guy who has been on HT for the last 14 years which made us feel a little better. 


I think what's taken us both by surprise really is how quickly the HT has kicked in but as I read on someone else's post I guess it means the bicalutamide is doing its job.  Within a couple of days of starting the HT, the fatigue began and he had an upset tummy for a couple of days but that seems to have gone now. His libido has now disappeared and the sleep disturbance has really only been the last few days and although as Chris says this may be due to him having night flushes he hasn't mentioned feeling flushed so not sure. He said to me on the way to the support group the other day that he just feels very odd. 

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 19:14
Brain fog is a known side effect. I don’t think ladies ever truly understand how a mans sexual function is important to him , as we never quite understand motherhood etc. If his libido has gone he may be having awful awful thoughts about himself and you and your marriage etc. Enough to break anyone’s sleep pattern on top of the diagnosis. Strangely in 11 months I never lost my libido a jot.
User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 19:19

Yes Cheshire Chris, Having had colon cancer myself I can totally understand the effect the diagnosis has on anyone. My partner was first diagnosed in 2017 and underwent a radical prostatectomy followed by 20 sessions of radiotherapy. A CT scan showed he had an enlarged lymph gland in his pelvis with a further psma pet scan showing spread to 20 lymph nodes from the pelvis to shoulder. It is this that hit him hard I think because the letter from the oncologist to his G.P following the CT and before the pet scan suggested it was just one lymph and that it maybe possible to treat with some more radiotherapy so long as it wasn't in the same site as the original radiotherapy, I suppose looking back we were a bit naive in thinking that it would just be one.   

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

User
Posted 11 Mar 2020 at 19:29

Im sure Chris J he is which is why I think its more to do with some depression that the side effects from the bicalutamide. Mainly because following his surgery and recovery he didn't have a sex life and had no idea if he would ever have one again, but we got together and we did have a great sex life thanks to what we call our friend ( Vaccum pump ) so to lose his libido now feels like he is mourning that lost part of his life all over again. But we talk and are really close and we will work on that side of it. He actually said the other day that when we do make love it's just as it was it's just the actually getting to that bit that's the issue :) lol  

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine...... 

 
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