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Osteoporosis drugs and age implications
I am a newly diagnosed Osteoporosis patient, I am a female and only 51. Was diagnosed at 50. Early menopause at 46. Osteoporosis at the lumbar spine -2.7 and osteopenia at the femoral neck -1.9 -2.1.
I am healthy otherwise, never taken any medication and only recently my lipid blood work came with mild high cholesterol. My question is, what are the implications to take into consideration when being my age and starting medication so early, at 50 you are looking into at least 25 years of managing this issue. For now I am taking raloxifene as my doctor agreed to let me research on what to do while being on this medication, he stated this is not first line medication and I need a different treatment. I feel like every one with osteoporosis is at least already in their 60’s and I have still such a long way to go. Thanks
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@dvargo
I am a strontium citrate user and a BHRT user.
I started both years ago when my femoral reading was -2.8 L hip.... the hip is much much harder to change than the spine.
I am now -0.7, normal bone density and normal bone quality as per TBS. no fractures, no side effects.
🙂 that information section on our profiles can certainly be valuable when it is filled out. ha
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2 ReactionsAgree, at age 67 (menopause at 50) my docs said NO WAY to HRT…I saw endo, gyne, and a rheumatologist. It would also be incredibly helpful to have a dexa within a year of official menopause, unfortunately unless there are other reasons to get one - we generally do not get dexa until you hit the magic age of 65; I was probably losing bone density for 15 years or so before the dexa was done. Then the lecture about how much trouble we are in and how much lifelong meds we need to take etc. I could have spent 15 years being more vigilant about calcium vitamin d, k, c, weight lifting, etc. would I still need one drug or another? Maybe but I’ll never know.
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2 Reactions@izziesue
Progestin was and is tied to cardio problems and cancers.
But as you imply the new BHRT topical/vaginal do not have the same links.
Indeed, in the largest population study on hormones ever done the only group with no, 0% increase in breast cancer was the one on bioidentical progesterone.
https://cemcor.ubc.ca/resources/does-taking-progesterone-alone-or-estrogen-increase-womens-risk-breast-cancer/
Also, the new standards do not link age or time from menopause with hormone use. They do link use with need and a good medical support and work up.
Many women deep into menopause are beginning BHRT and having good results.
https://menopause.org/press-releases/ongoing-individualized-hormone-therapy-appears-to-have-no-age-limit
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5 Reactions@izziesue As @tillymack says keep looking! Doctors are evolving their approach on HRT as newer research has been published.
My regular doctor specializes in older patients and offered me HRT upfront at age 66 and 20+ years post menopause. I had gathered a whole folder of research articles to discuss with her, but I did not need any of it.
You could gather a similar set of research papers. Be sure to keep and include the online links in case your doctor wants you to forward those to her. My previous doctor who also specialized in older patients was open to HRT for me, so you might want to try to find a doctor who works with more people like us who have OP. Good Luck.
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6 Reactions@kfhoz When you refer to doctors who specializein older patients, are you thinking of gerontologists?
@tillymack One of my doctors does specialize in Geriatric Medicine. All of the healthcare providers (NP etc) are in a practice that only takes Medicare and Medicare-Advantage patients. So they see only people 65 or older.
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2 ReactionsTo confirm, was the doc who offered you HRT a gerontologist or was it an internal medicine doc who happens to specialize in 65+ folks? Thank you!
@dvargo
Would you tell me what a vibration plate is?
I’ve never heard of it. Thank you.
@kathleen1314
Wow! Thank you for the links. Very helpful.
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1 ReactionThank you.