Sky News star Jacquie: ‘How breast cancer drugs made my life a living hell’

Scorching hot flushes. Low moods. Aching bones. Sky News star Jacquie Beltrao reveals how tamoxifen triggered a brutal battle with the menopause

IKICK off the duvet for about the tenth time but the bedside clock reveals it’s still only 1.30am. I am boiling and slightly panicked. It’s a hot flush – a feeling I’ve got used to over the past three years.

I know I won’t sleep again now until my alarm goes off at 3.30am. The wave of heat lasts just a minute or two, but the damage is done.

Once again I will go to work at Sky News on just four hours’ sleep, hoping I can concentrate until the end of my shift and without snapping at anyone. Thank you very much, tamoxifen. You may be a lifesaver for many breast cancer patients, but you are an absolute b**** when it comes to irritating side effects.

A normal menopause will happen gradually over about five years. However, if you’re pre-menopausal and have a common type of breast cancer, you may be put on the drug tamoxifen and go through it in about five months. It’s what’s known as a tamoxipause.

The drug brings on a medical menopause – one that can begin overnight and be brutal in the symptoms it causes.

For instance, a hot flush doesn’t really describe a tamoxifen hot flush. It’s like being plunged fully clothed into a sauna – you can’t get layers off quickly enough and in that moment (or three), it’s allconsuming. No wonder my oncologist, Dr Muireann Kelleher, said the other day: ‘I can’t believe you are already three years into your tamoxifen sentence.’

It was four years ago – Christmas 2013 – that I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. I had a mastectomy, followed by five rounds of chemotherapy and then started on tamoxifen.

THE drug is given to pre-menopausal women who have had ‘ oestrogen- receptor positive’ tumours (about 85 per cent of breast cancers). This means that the cancer is encouraged to grow and divide by the presence of the hormone oestrogen.

Tamoxifen blocks the effects of oestrogen on the receptors, in turn helping to stop any breast cancer cells from growing.

Most women, like me, are encouraged to take tamoxifen for at least five years, although some younger women are advised to take it for up to ten. By doing this, the risk of the cancer returning can be slashed by up to 40 per cent. The drug really is a lifesaver.

The problem is that oestrogen is what makes everything work well – joints, mood, brain, looks – and a lack of it causes the menopausal symptoms from which I now suffer. And because hormone replacement therapy ( HRT) contains oestrogen, t he very hormone tamoxifen is trying to block, breast cancer survivors cannot be given HRT to alleviate their symptoms. Ultimately, the symptoms caused by the drug can become so intolerable that about 20 per cent of women stop taking it, as I very nearly did at one point.

Yes, my cancer is far more likely to be cured than ever return, but that is not guaranteed. And tamoxifen reduces this risk while I’m taking it and for up to five years after I stop.

It’s not an easy ride, but it’s not advisable to get off. You just have to adjust. And that is what I am trying to do.

‘What’s worth remembering is that tamoxifen has saved more lives than any other cancer drug,’ Dr Kelleher tells me. ‘It’ s cheap, easily available and can be prescribed to almost all women.’

And the side effects? ‘About 40 per cent of women feel fine on it, 40 per cent say things could be better and between ten and 20 per cent cannot tolerate it at all,’ she explains. ‘And when you start your actual menopause it does exaggerate the problems. But it is genuinely effective in preventing a cancer comeback for so many women that most of us put up with the side effects and crack on.’ Menopause nightmare aside, there are other, less well- known side effects of tamoxifen. First of all, it can increase the risk of endometrial (womb) cancer, so every woman taking it must be vigilant for unusual bleeding. However, endometrial cancer is rare compared to breast cancer and is usually curable. Secondly, tamoxifen marginally increases the risk of blood clots, so staying fit and active is really important. A third factor is the change in mood – and this is common with many hormone treatments for cancer that lower or block oestrogen. That is because oestrogen is the‘ good mood’ hormone – without it, we breast cancer survivors can lose our bounce and joie de vivre. For most, t his is