Is a dexa every 2 years enough?

@susanjane77 Hi. Before commenting on Prolia I want to say that generally you don't want to be on Reclast 6 years consecutively. That's too long to have heavy duty bone suppression. I don't know your details and all your DXA scores and how that's trending and so on but I personally would be thinking of taking an anabolic (bone building) med after all those years of bone suppression. My idea and hope is that a bone builder following a bone suppressive med may at least somewhat restore the architecture and bone quality that will have declined with long term bone suppressive meds.

On Prolia, lots of people have good results and few or no side effects with Prolia. The biggest problem comes with how to stop Prolia if you need to stop taking it. The longer you take it the greater the danger stopping it. When you stop you lose all the bone you gained while taking it and the loss occurs rapidly. That will happen to everyone unless they take some other med to stop that loss and even a follow up drug may not stop that loss.

But worse than that is that some people get multiple fractures on stopping. So they don't just lose the bone they gained, they start fracturing and may fracture many times. I don't know what percentage of people this happens to, I wish I did. I've seen on these groups people saying they got 2-10 fractures within a year or two of stopping Prolia. This happens most often when doctors are or were unaware of this problem.
So Prolia works great for many people but some of us think this is a drug that is a reasonable choice only quite late in life. When you don't expect to live more that 6-10 years say.
That's a very quick run down of the worst issues. Others will have different opinions to consider.
I have no medical training - I'm just a guy trying to turn my own bone loss around.

@mlwh, never heard of it and, of course, none in Denver, but here is a link to locations:
https://www.dexafit.com/dexafit-store-mapper

@mlwh, never heard of it and, of course, none in Denver, but here is a link to locations:
https://www.dexafit.com/dexafit-store-mapper

Update - there is now a dexafit in Denver. Now I'll investigate.

@elisabeth007, others will chime in, I'm sure, but for me, these bone marker tests are not more valid than DXA scores - that is comparing apples and oranges.

If you get the baseline blood tests before you start meds, you can retest in 3-4 months (and beyond) and the results of those blood tests will inform you as to whether or not the medication is actually doing what it's supposed to be doing. I'd hate to spend 2 years on Forteo or Evenity etc. to find out at the end that they didn't work. If they aren't working, there is an opportunity to change the treatment plan.

My first MD would not order them because he said the results would not change his plan and that made zero sense to me.

@babs10 I am late to the party here but I had to request a CTX from my doc after about 1 year of Fosamax and before I did reclast. He somewhat reluctantly (maybe I read him wrong) did. Very low CTX (about 58). Had my 2nd once a year DEXA before Reclast; some improvement in T scores but not enough, thus Reclast. One year after Reclast at CTX 78; he was very happy with that. I was shocked when he said no DEXA for another year, and I am due for a second Reclast infusion in July, apparently without knowing via DEXA if the drug has worked at all, a little, or a lot. Treatment wouldn't change regardless I was told. Beyond zero sense.

@babs10 I am late to the party here but I had to request a CTX from my doc after about 1 year of Fosamax and before I did reclast. He somewhat reluctantly (maybe I read him wrong) did. Very low CTX (about 58). Had my 2nd once a year DEXA before Reclast; some improvement in T scores but not enough, thus Reclast. One year after Reclast at CTX 78; he was very happy with that. I was shocked when he said no DEXA for another year, and I am due for a second Reclast infusion in July, apparently without knowing via DEXA if the drug has worked at all, a little, or a lot. Treatment wouldn't change regardless I was told. Beyond zero sense.