femara is becoming intolerable

In jan 07 I was diagnosed with bc, stage 2A. I was 49 with no menopause symptoms whatsoever. I had dose-dense chemo. When I got to the taxol, my periods stopped and the real horror began. It was essentially a chemical castration. I have struggled with tamoxifen -intolerable hot flashes, extreme swelling and sleeplessness leading to extreme weight gain. They switched me to femara 6 weeks ago. I am now not able to sleep in more than 90 min. segments and I'm blowing up like a balloon. I start the day trying to eat healthy but by noon I'm scarfing candy bars just to keep my head up. Exercise is impossible. I'm too weak. I am now 90lbs overweight with no end in sight. I sweat constantly with the worst "hell" flashes known to man. My eyelashes have fallen out, I have coarse bristles on my chin and now I fear for what little head hair I have. My docs won't help and treat me like I'm a nutcase. I literally collapsed at work from the exhaustion. I was given valium to sleep but even a double dose doesn't work. I have decided that my quality of life is not acceptable. I believe my health is more at risk from the weakness and weight gain than from any estrogen. I seriously doubt there's on iota of estrogen left in my system. I have become a sexless blob. I have decided that beginning tomorrow, I'm dropping the femara and hoping to flush the toxin out of my system. My question is this- Am I really crazy or do other women have to do this? What is my real risk of my cancer returning?Thanks.

[Cleveland Clinic]

Dear catwoman51, Some chemotherapy medications given for treatment of breast cancer may cause damage to the ovaries, resulting in menopausal symptoms or menopause.  Many pre-menopausal women retain or recover ovarian function and their periods after treatment is completed.  Generally, as a woman ages and becomes closer to menopause (chronologically), the more likely it is that she will experience menopause symptoms during chemotherapy, and the more likely that menopause will be permanent.  The symptoms you describe may be related to menopause, and whether they will altogether improve after discontinuing femara is not certain as they may be related to menopause.  

For some suggestions as to help in managing symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes I am referring you to the website Chemocare.com (www.chemocare.com)  Under the topic of managing side effects is a document that discusses menopause and chemotherapy as well as hot flashes (here is the direct link: http://www.chemocare.com/managing/menopause_chemotherapy.asp to that area of the website)  There are several suggestions for help with managing side effects associated with menopause.

Regarding risk of recurrence it is difficult to speculate without all available information but your oncologist is in a good position to estimate that risk.