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Why no bone marker tests before starting alendronate?
Osteoporosis & Bone Health | Last Active: 2 hours ago | Replies (16)Comment receiving replies
debocof, at younger than 50 it would be more likely that there could be secondary cause of osteoporosis.
Most of us lose bone because of hormonal changes, rather than dietary intake.
Did they measure the femoral neck on only one side? Is there any left or right notation. Do you have any pain or was there previous injury to the measured hip.
One of the drawbacks of dexa is that the foot has to be rotated internally so that the femur neck is parallel to the table. Misreadings in the femoral neck are not unusual. The occurrence of isolated femoral neck osteoporosis is low (about 5%).
I suspect you would benefit from seeing an endocrinologist.
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@gently
It was my left hip, and yes, I started having pain there 3 summers ago along with lower left-side back and knee pain, only on that side.
I had an mri that showed a labrum tear, but no doc offered to repair it. It hasn’t been as painful the last 5 months as it had been, and it was rarely debilitating, as my knee took that prize. Pilates might have helped?
The doctor I saw in December, before this DEXA, actually is an endocrinologist who is the head of a skeletal heath speciality at UCSF. I’ve texted him again to ask about what could cause such sudden significant bmd loss (5.7%) in two active years, and to ask if bone markers might be appropriate prior to starting alendronate.
Now I’m worried that alendronate will make my bones more brittle, but I can’t constantly overthink treatment without driving myself nuts! I should’ve been given HRT, but my CA doctors have been just dialing it in, it seems, cause the benefits of HRT were known well before I’d been post-menopausal for 10 years (this is my 18th year).