Can a person take Forteo again after a 5 year break?

Hello @cvillegal, welcome to Connect. I am inviting some members who have taken or are taking Forteo to share their thoughts and experiences with a gap in taking the medication: @harper2018, @breakdancer, @ritafarmer, and @betterbones who have all discussed Forteo on Connect.

@cvillegal, if you don't mind sharing, has forteo been recommended to you again, or are you just curious as it was what you used in the past?

I have swelling in my left knee. They want to do surgery some day soon. Does anyone know what I can do to get the swelling down. Pleaße help

to cvillegal- If you read the package insert for Forteo, I think you will find that the FDA recommendation is for Forteo to be limited to 2 years total for lifetime. It is due to a cancer risk. Good luck

I just started Forteo and know you can’t take it for more than two years. But I’m wondering if you could then take Tymlos since is it a different medication. Do they both work in the same way, so if you take one you can’t take the other at some point? They both work to build bone, but I don’t know if they work from the same mechanism so if you ever take one, you can’t take the other. Anyone know?

I'm not familiar with the other drug but my Dr. Just put me on Forteo and I just started my second month. The plan for me is Forteo for 2 yrs and then Prolia.

My doctor is talking about moving to Reclast after the Forteo. I am in month four on Forteo, so do have some time to decide. So far so good ... hope it is going well for you too!

I took Actonel for several years before taking Forteo for 12 months. Then, I took Actonel for 12 more months, saving the rest of the Forteo for dates closer to an anticipated spine surgery. Finally, I finished 12 more months of Forteo. To hold the gained bone density, one must stay on a strong builder, so I had a yearly infusion of RECLAST and will do that for five more years annually. I have had lots of fractures after 30 years of Prednisone for Rheumatoid Disease, so this is all, sadly, necessary. The great news is that my bone density has improved very nicely!

I’m doing the Forteo for two years (in month 5 now), then the plan is to move to Reclast. You note you have had your bone density increase. Can you share how much improvement you experienced?

Here is what my endocrinologist wrote in my report: Her bone mineral density from this visit shows a femur neck T-score -0.9 which is up 4.5% since starting teriparatide. Lab work shows a normal calcium, creatinine, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D of 40 ng/mL.

I hope that you have a significant increase in density too!

Thank you for sharing! I’m hoping for good results too!