How many of you improved your osteoporosis without drug intervention?

Unfortunately transvaginal estradiol does nothing for bone health, just met with my gynecologist. She will prescribe HRT if I demand it but is against it as 25% of her patients over 60 have had significant side effects like stroke, heart issues and one had something to do with the eyes. My Endo knows nothing about HRT for bone health and cannot prescribe it.

I’m 57, diagnosed with osteoporosis in May, and do not want to start biphosphonates as first treatment, as recommended by my primary dr.
Having been told nothing about the extent of the effects of estrogen loss our bodily systems, I’m now diving deep to educate myself, and am hoping to see improvement through exercise,
nutrition, supplementation, and hopefully HRT. What I understand is that transdermal (patch,
spray) HRT does not carry the risks of oral HRT. That said, I also understand it’s important to be aware that every person’s case/candidacy for HRT is individual, given their health history.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the Menopause Society’s updated (2022) statement on HRT. Drs certified by the Society will be aware of this updated information, but others will not. HRT is not currently FDA approved for “treatment of, just “prevention of” osteoporosis (gee, too late), but given the other benefits, seems like a good thing for me to explore.
Good luck!

It was my OBGYN that initially prescribed my TV Estradiol. You might find this study of use. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6538478/

Vaginal Estradiol is not HRT and is not what my Gyn nor I was referring to in terms of bad side effects. This article agrees with this....

It is a test that can certainly help people to prevent illness and disease! Unbelievable that it isn’t a standard part of testing.

vaginal estrogen improves vaginal tissues. It is not systemic, is very safe as it stays local to the vaginal tissues, and will not improve bone density.

@teb if it stays local, how can it improve bones?

I had hormonal breast cancer so have a lot of questions about the safety of vaginal estrogen and would not go near it. But for others, does it really help bones or only vaginal area?

From what I understand, it predominantly stays local to the vaginal tissues. Vaginally applied estrogen is not the recommended route for the prevention of bone loss whereas oral and transdermal applications are. Vaginal estrogen is prescribed to prevent the vaginal tissues from atrophy, create a healthier vaginal environment and thus prevent (hopefully) UTIs which are more common as we age. It is considered safe for all ages, even prescribes for 90+ year old women. I don't know about those with a history of breast cancer but I would bet Dr Bluming addresses this in his updated book, Estrogen Matters. Perhaps the doses are much lower in a vaginal cream application and with repeated application, the tissues themselves get saturated locally (that is why with a transdermal patch, they always recommend regularly rotating the site to not saturate the tissues).

Is anyone using Algeacal and having good result?

@windyshores I was told by a gyne onco that vag estrogen is 'safe' even for BC survivors but I just read a medical article last week talking about how they found lower survival rates for BC survivors who were using vag estrogen when they were on AIs. They theorized that the vag estrogen absorption, even tho its super super low, still counteracted the effectiveness of the AI trying to remove all estrogen. Interestingly vag estrogen didn't affect survival for the BC survivors on tamoxifen, maybe because tamoxifen works differently in still allowing your body to have estrogen but only in healthy tissues. Overall my understanding is that vag estrogen is solely for improving vag health since there isn't enough systematically to impact the rest of the body.