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How long can a person hold the gains from an anabolic plus reclast?
So, I had a very shocking and discouraging comment from my endo about how long a person generally holds gains from drug therapy for OP, specifically one of the anabolics (Forteo, Tymlos, Evenity) plus reclast. She said 1-3 years. So you take drugs with, for me, probably a ton of side effects for at least 2 years and you might only benefit from it for one year???!!! If anyone has any studies on whether this is true or not, I'd love to see them. Would also like to hear people's personal experiences on this and how long they were able to keep their gains once they "locked it in" with reclast.
Rest assured, I knew this would not be a one and done type of process. But if I'm going to have my quality of life diminished from two years of taking drugs, I would hope for at least FIVE years of improvement, not ONE. ALSO, have you really made those gains? Or do you only have them while taking the drugs. Because, it took me over 15 years to lose bone density and develop OP, but apparently bone density from drugs can go away in one year, according to my endo. That just seems crazy. I was planning on just pushing through side effects, like its chemo, to get to the other side. But if I have to be on these drugs that diminish quality of life for the rest of my life with only a year off here and there then I'm probably going to push this off a few years and try to do whatever I can the natural way to stave off the merry go round of drugs that I'm apparently about to start. I'm just flabbergasted. And I know, for those of you who haven't gotten seriously ill from meds where the cure IS literally worse than the disease for you, it is impossible for you to understand/empathise with. But I have. And it sucks. So please, is there anyone on here or do you know of anyone who has made it three or more years before having to go back on these drugs? Or know of long term studies showing how long people keep gains, I would appreciate it. Please answer only the question given. I don't need a lecture right now. Thank you!
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Do you have an endocrinologist? Often, the primary care physician doesn't know much about these medications, much less a nurse practitioner. It can be frustrating for sure.
I've read that people can take drug holidays when locking in gains, like three years on, two years off, that sort of thing. I'm not at that stage yet.
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3 ReactionsGood questions and concerns. I’m not to that point. But yikes yes!!!
I’m about to start evenity and endo said to follow with either reclast or fosamax. I was on fosamax for a couple months prior to meeting with my new endo and I tolerated it so I’ll go that route.
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1 ReactionTo follow up from my last post re: Reclast, I did Osteostrong for a year (rather than take another Reclast infusion-I had a pretty bad reaction).
My dexascan was almost identical to the previous year’s so don’t think it was very helpful for me.
My endocrinologist recommended I now take Prolia but I declined due to concerns about SEs.
So far no other fractures since the compression fxs 4 years ago while ⛷️. I am now 67.
I do think the osteoporosis meds may have triggered arthritis though. (Evenity , then Reclast).
There’s no great drugs for many of us (yet) and we have decide the risk/benefit for ourselves .
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2 ReactionsYou might find this study of interest where they followed a single dose of ReClast for 10 YEARS. It looks to me like one could go 5 years before needing another dose, depending on how a particular individual reacts. Bone Markers might guide one on that.
ReClast - Bone Mineral Density and Bone Turnover 10 Years After a Single 5 mg Dose or Two (ReClast-Bone-Mineral-Density-and-Bone-Turnover-10-Years-After-a-Single-5-mg-Dose-or-Two.pdf)
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