1st Degarelix (Firmagon) Injection Today

Fairwind and Cyclone thank you for the well wishes!

George, thanks for the link - I figure to have the blood tests in two weeks - I know I could have them sooner --

Bobby Mac

Allen -

Yes I have taken taken Vitamin D, both with the Calcium pill and a large stand alone dose. However, I do not take those every day.

I'll stop the Calcium & Vitamin D immediately. I had a bone density scan Friday so I hope that will come out okay! Calcium may not be helping anyway as you have pointed out.

My new MO is telling me 3 years on ADT, but maybe 2 would be okay.
I'll have see how the Firmagon SE's are going to be.

So far so good on the Firmagon - red circle around the injection sites, but I have read that is a normal SE. Also, more hot flashes I've noticed.

Bobby Mac

Bobby Mac,

my testosterone value got down to 16 one month after the first injection.

Here is a link how to administer Degarelix: Firmagon® Dosage & Administration. You may want to check closely what the nurse is doing. If she shakes the vial, you will have side effects.

The instructions recommend to have four sectors around your navel. Tell the nurse to set the injection into a different sector each time. Its you who has to keep track of that! I know of a patient who is on life-long ADT with Degarelix and he uses eight sectors.

I took 8,000 I.E. of vitamin D every day while on ADT. One doctor told me I could take 10,000 I.E. without problems. Please discuss this with your MO, you should avoid to reduce your bone density. My experience is that Degarelix will get your testosterone below 20 even while you take vitamin D.

George

Bobby Mac,

I've had four Firmagon injections, administered in the "square around the navel" format others have mentioned. There are a couple of days of some discomfort around the injection site, mostly because there is a bulge where there isn't normally, but then that subsides.

Most importantly, I'm told that T reduction is guaranteed, and that the important thing is the PSA drop that should follow from depriving the cancer of food. My PSA went from 21 to 1.7 in one month, with no other treatments applied. Physically, I could tell the T went down from the hotflashes and, umm, "shrinkage", but that huge reduction in PSA was what I was after.

Hang in there, and I hope your luck is as good as mine has been so far!

Mark

FYI Here's a recent article about this:

Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on Testosterone Levels in Men

It may have little effect on men with normal T levels, but it may have a larger effect on men who have (or are trying to achieve) low T levels.

Three years is a long time on ADT. Are you taking a bisphosphonate to maintain bone density? An estrogen patch (with tamoxifen) may help maintain bone density and further suppress testosterone and eliminate hot flashes. I met a prostate cancer researcher who has metastatic PC who swears by it - he takes no GnRH agonists or antagonists and has undetectable PSA. There's a large RCT in the UK now:/clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00303784

I met with the MO today and asked about bisphosphonate or estrogen patches and rejected he them.

about the estrogen patches he cited cardiovascular concerns.

Right now I am only considered borderline Osteopenic so he thinks more exercise will do the trick.

Bobby Mac