alendronate and no progress

What kind of score should I ask my doctor for and should I ask to see an endocrinologist?

Lisa, I am only familiar with the "T score" which is a measure of how severe the osteoporosis is on the various bones included in the scan, such as hip, lumbar spine, etc. I did see an endocrinologist, Dr. Wermers, at Mayo, via a telehealth appointment and felt it was a helpful visit.

I share your concern, Sherry. Unfortunately, every doctor and/or nurse practitioner I have seen in the last several years has recommended the same thing. The claim is that it taking alendronate/Fosamax will reduce your risk of fracture by 50%. Of course, not everyone responds the same to any med, so I wish there was more information, maybe genetic research, that would provide a little more information to anyone advised to take the med.

I think that info would be of interest to all of us in this discussion.

Interesting study, and the "further research" may help people 10 years from now, but I'm not sure, given the small sample, that one could make a decision based on this. Hope there are more studies with the same protocols to see if the results are similar.

Hi, Ann. I take Vitamin D daily, in addition to alendronate.

I am waiting from doctor to find t score but the med is alendronate 70 mg once weekly. I thought may be vit d k2 am magnesium is what I read what do you think

I was on Fosamax for 5+ years. I had increased T-scores after 2 years but at 4 years my scores were the same or worse. At five years I had a vertebral compression fracture at T8 and my T-score in my spine had dropped quite a bit.

I recently transferred my care to an endocrinologist and she said that the Fosamax had stopped working for me. My PCP had been managing my care and apparently never considered what to do after my T-scores started dropping other than to keep me on Fosamax.

This is why it's important, in my opinion, to see an osteoporosis specialist instead of letting your PCP manage your treatment plan.

I think change could happen when the Rems machine is in the traditional doctor's office. When they see you have bone loss but your quality of bone is good with a fragility score of only 3% of fracture in the next 5 years then and only then the doctor would not recommend a drug.

100 percent agree. Primary care doctors are not trained to treat osteoporosis. My PCP didn't even know what Tymlos and Forteo were. Hey, it's even hard to find endocrinologists who truly know what they are doing.