Tamoxifen and hormone levels

[billy245]

Just have a few questions here.  To start, I have been taking tamoxifen 20mg/day for the past 2 months or so.  I have very recently stopped.  

My question is: How long does it take (yes I know it varies from person to person) for the residual ammounts of the drug to completely exit the body? and, how long for the hormone levels to go back to "normal"? Days, weeks, months, years?

Thank you for your help.

[samgyne28]

Billy - how is the progress with the Tamoxifen.  Any positive results in 2 months?

[billy245]

No noticable progress.  

[Paa_Paw]

It is important to realize that this is a drug primarily used for the adjunctive treatment of breast cancer in women. And, it works by supressing the action of Estrogen upon breast tissues.

We all have and need a small amount of Estrogen, just as women have and need a small amount of testosterone. Both hormones are secreted by the adrenal glands. If your Estrogen level was found to be excessive, This drug might help. bu if your Gynecomastia was caused by low testosterone, you would be unlikely to have any response of value.

In fact, use of such drugs without competent medical supervision could concieveably even make things worse in some cases.

If this drug works as many would hope, the effect would be that the breasts would stop growing. Shrinkage could then take a long time, even a couple of years or more.

Starting and stopping treatment could cause a rebound increase in estrogen levels and favor further growth.

The only intelligent thing to do is to seek competent medical help and not play Do-It-Yourself games with your reproductive physiology.

[billy245]

Paa_Paw,

Thank you for your response and concerns.  If I didnt clearly mention it before I have stopped taking the tamoxifen and don't plan on starting again.  My question still remains however.  How long does it take for the drug to completely exit the body and hormone levels to return to normal?  

I would like to know when a good time would be to visit an endocrinologist where my hormone levels are back to their previous (before taking tamoxifen) levels, as to provide as accurate a test as possible.

My concern is that my test results will be inaccurate due to  the tamoxifen and trace ammounts of the drug will still be in my system.  I appologize for not being able to provide a more medically termed description.  Any help is appreciated.  Perhaps Hypo would like to comment on this?

Thanks again.