Following up, my helpful sisters!

My endocrinologist was very helpful, most notably that she is willing to go down this hair loss rabbit hole with me- I’d left it to her to let me know just which physician is best to spearhead this, along with giving her my experiences when broaching the subject with onco and dermatology. That she launched into her understanding and ordered a million labs tells me she’s my girl.

Paramount is her understanding that any treatment going forward would need to be vetted by oncology to make sure it’s not contraindicated to my ongoing endocrine therapy, nor otherwise implicated in breast cancer occurrence, even remotely.

I’d already been down to the lab for the usual spate of pokes, she sent me back down to the dungeon for:
Ferritin and iron profile (full spectrum iron assessment)
TSH Abn Reflex to Free T4 (full spectrum thyroid)
Testosterone (while my estrogen is clearly very low, making relative testosterone high, it may be that actual testosterone is higher than average, compounding the hair loss prob)
Vitamin D (as the original NIH article suggest, low D can contribute as well)

If these are in need of tweaking, those that can be tweaked, will be. She’s is willing to look at topical alpha phase inhibitor as a possible therapy, but also mentioned spirolactone (aldactone), thinking it would even safer and less consequential-she advises I run these ideas through my onco while we wait for lab results.
I’m happy for the forward movement.

@A MyBCTeam Member

((Hug))

I used nioxin hair products throughout all my chemo even with losing my hair. My hairdresser suggested because one of her previous clients swore by it when she was going through her chemo treatments. My hair has grown back in gray and thicker than before. I also have been using vital protein collagen peptides. Hope this helps❤️

I just saw a dermatologis regarding this issue(not from aromatase but a chemo I was told would not do this (for lung cancer). Of course I was one who did..is losing that small percentage. He put me on a topical scalp steroid once a day and Rogaine once a day. Too new to see if working but would love to hear others on this.

I also stopped taking tamoxifen April/May 2017 after 5 years. The side effects weren’t worth the small small % of increase protection against a recurrence. They spin the numbers so it sounds better than it really is especially once you get into the 5-10 year point of treatment. It’s a personal decision but for me the numbers don’t add up and quality of life is better than quantity for me. But my hair loss continued for over a year after stopping.

@A MyBCTeam Member, yes. I was put on Tam, and at 1.5 years, switched. Despite not having had a period since chemo began, my onco tested me to see if I was truely in menopause- that was a surprise to me...I had no idea one could still be premenopausal without having periods for almost two years, I just assumed I was over that hump. Turns out, my ovaries were still churning out estrogen. It was only at that time, as I switched to an aromatase inhibitor that I added in a monthly Zolodex implant (similar to Lupron).
Somewhere in the study it says tamoxafin for a time then switching to an AI with ovarian suppression seems the best route for premenopausal patients.

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