How long for 3-month Lupron Shot to Wear Off?

it affects you more like 9 months!

I had 24 months of Lupron. I had my last 4 month shot 5 1/2 months ago. My doctor said that by the time I see him 2 weeks from now that I should notice a difference. I have, the hot flashes seem to be gone and the fog is getting clearer, but he also said that, for me, it would take 18 months for the effects to be completely gone. I'm just glad the fog is going away. Oh, the joint pains, which were few and far between, seems to have gone away also.

Ken

Others with more experience have already replied.

I was going to say that 3 months into my first 4-month Lupron, it is still on the job as testosterone is less than 3 last week, and PSA continues to decline each test.

Redwing,

The SWOG study (Adjuvant Androgen Deprivation for High-Risk Prostate Cancer After Radical Prostatectomy: SWOG S9921 Study) looked at a large group of men on ADT for two years and they found the median time to recovery was 11.7 months (just over 51 weeks).

That means that the typical man getting his last 3-month Lupron shot today can expect to recover sometime around October 1, 2014.

The study is not impossible to read and its discussion is interesting. Overall it is quite encouraging about one's odds with surgery for high risk disease with the addition of ADT to make it more effective. It is the study that, more than anything else, helped me to see 2 years of ADT as worth the side effects and bother.

But, that said, it does contain this worrisome sentence: Although 89% of men recovered normal testosterone levels after 18 months, the fact that some men remain hypogonadal after 2 years of adjuvant ADT is an important piece of information in counseling patients.

This has also been an important thread for me...I'm 8 months into a planned 12-month HT regimen. Earlier this week, Dr Lam brought up the idea of stretching it to 18 months so I have a decision to make there. Knowing that it will take some time to bounce back will certainly be part of my decision.

BTW, I take 1-month shots of Lupron, which seems unusual here. While I was given the option of a 3-month shot, I come into the office monthly anyway for my bloodwork, so it seemed to make sense to stick with the 1-month shot.

Michael_T,

Here's a recent review of the literature that talks quite a bit about different studies that looked at short vs long-term ADT. Most of them seemed to find the results of longer-term ADT (often defined as >=2 years) was better.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3206331/

On the other hand a recent study failed to show that three years was better than 18 months (but the study was a little underpowered and it could be that their failure to show superiority would have been avoided with a larger population under study.)

My impression is that 18 to 24 months seems to represent the sweet spot right now but that the battle is still being waged.