Anastrozole 1 mg

Anastrozole is a tablet that lowers the amount of oestrogen in your body. Oestrogen is a female sex hormone, and some medical conditions are affected by how much of it is present. Your doctor has prescribed this medicine for you after considering your own situation. It is a prescription-only medicine, so it must only be used by the person it was prescribed for.

Read this section carefully and tell your doctor about your health and any other medicines before you take the first tablet.

Warnings and precautions

• +Talk to your doctor before using anastrozole if you have thin or weak bones (osteoporosis), or if bones in your family break easily. This medicine lowers oestrogen, which can make bones thinner over time, so your doctor may arrange a bone scan before you start and repeat it during treatment.
• +Talk to your doctor before using anastrozole if you have liver or kidney problems. Your doctor may want to check your blood from time to time.
• +Talk to your doctor before using anastrozole if you have high cholesterol or have been told your blood fats are high, as your doctor may want to monitor these.
• +Talk to your doctor before using anastrozole if you have heart disease or have had a heart attack or angina.
• +Talk to your doctor before using anastrozole if you are not sure whether you have been through the menopause. A blood test may be needed to confirm this.
• +Talk to your doctor before using anastrozole if you are taking any medicine for bones, or any calcium or vitamin D supplement, so your care can be planned together.
• +Tell your doctor if you get new or worsening joint pain, stiffness in the hands in the morning, or bone pain, so this can be looked at.

Other medicines and Anastrozole

Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking, have recently taken, or might take any other medicines. This includes medicines you bought without a prescription, herbal remedies and supplements. It is especially important to mention any medicine that contains oestrogen, such as HRT or the contraceptive pill, because these work against anastrozole and stop it doing its job. Also mention tamoxifen or any similar medicine that affects oestrogen, medicines for weak bones, and any medicine for cholesterol. If you are unsure what is in a medicine, take the pack with you and show it to your doctor or pharmacist.

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility

Do not take anastrozole if you are pregnant, think you may be pregnant, or are planning to become pregnant. It could harm an unborn baby. Do not take it if you are breastfeeding, as it is not known whether it passes into breast milk. If you could still become pregnant, ask your doctor which methods of contraception are suitable for you, and tell your doctor straight away if you become pregnant while taking this medicine. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice before taking any medicine.

Driving and using machines

Anastrozole does not usually affect your ability to drive or use machines. However, some people feel weak, very tired or sleepy while taking it. If this happens to you, do not drive, cycle or use tools or machines until you feel normal again.

Always take this medicine exactly as your doctor has told you. Check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are not sure. It is a tablet that you swallow whole with a drink of water. You can take it with or without food, but it helps to take it at about the same time each day. Your doctor decides how much you take and for how long, so never change the amount yourself, and do not stop taking it just because you feel well. If you forget a tablet, take the next one at the usual time; do not take a double amount to make up for a forgotten one. If you take more tablets than your doctor told you to, contact your doctor straight away or go to the nearest hospital, and take the pack with you.

Like all medicines, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.

Other possible side effects

• +Hot flushes, or sudden feelings of heat and sweating
• +Joint pain or stiffness, especially in the hands, knees or hips
• +Bone pain, or bones that break more easily than before
• +Feeling weak or unusually tired
• +Headache
• +Feeling sick (nausea)
• +Dry or itchy skin, or a rash
• +Dryness of the vagina, or bleeding from the vagina, especially in the first weeks
• +Thinning of the hair
• +Loss of appetite, or a raised level of fat (cholesterol) in the blood found on a test

Keep this medicine out of the sight and reach of children. Store below 30 degrees Celsius, in the original pack, to protect the tablets from moisture and light. Do not use this medicine after the expiry date printed on the carton and on the blister foil; the expiry date refers to the last day of that month. Do not use the medicine if the blister is torn or the tablets look damaged or discoloured. Do not throw medicines away in your household waste or down the toilet. Take any medicine you no longer need back to your pharmacy. These measures help protect the environment.

Each tablet contains anastrozole as the active substance. The other ingredients are the fillers, binder and coating that hold the tablet together and give it its coat; the full list is printed on the carton. The tablets are round and film-coated, and they are supplied in blister strips inside a cardboard carton, in packs of 10 to 100 tablets. Not all pack sizes may be available in your country. The carton carries a printed square barcode (a GS1 DataMatrix) and a verification code, which you can enter at ergopharm.net to check that the pack is genuine. Manufactured under GMP conditions by Ergopharm, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.