Menopausal Symptoms Are Common in Breast Cancer Survivors

To determine the prevalence and severity of menopausal symptoms among survivors of invasive breast cancer who had no evidence of recurrent or new disease and were no longer receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy (i.e., tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors), investigators conducted a prospective cohort study of data from 843 women enrolled in a prospective Australian cohort study. Participants completed questionnaires at enrollment and every 12 months for 5 years (mean follow-up, 6 years after diagnosis).

Self-reporting of any vasomotor, psychological, physical, and sexual symptoms was common. Past chemotherapy or adjuvant endocrine therapy had no independent effects on vasomotor and sexual domain scores. Regardless of menopausal status, almost 80…