I found out I had osteoporosis at 57. I was shocked as I've been health conscious for 30 years and a dancer so I regularly exercise. My endo advised me to go on bisphosphonates and my naturopath advised me to go on hormone replacement. I absolutely refused both options. I was going to research restoring my bone density naturally, improve my diet even more, increase my exercise and track my nutrition to make sure I was getting the appropriate nutrients in the right amounts. I gave it 100% effort and told my endo to give me 2 years to show my results. Epic fail. I went from -2.8 to -3.2 with all the loss continuing in my spine. I decided to finally go on Forteo as I felt that at least as parathyroid hormone, it was something familiar to the body and that it specifically targeted the vertebrae. It worked and I had no side effects and my density went from 3.2 to 2.9. Interestingly, I had the most gain the first year and towards the end of the second year, unfortunately a slight loss. After Forteo, you must go on something to maintain the gain or you will quickly lose it. That was also a tough decision. I ultimately decided to go on a low dose hormone replacement and that has helped to stabilize. Again, I made that difficult choice as I felt it was the most natural thing to put into my body compared to the alternatives. The studies that demonized hormone replacement are under greater scrutiny and there are many that now believe they provide more benefit than risk (although there is greater risk if you have heart disease or breast cancer or a genetic predisposition). Ultimately, I wish I had done something years earlier. I mistakenly felt I could do it naturally and that was not possible. If I could do it all over again, I would have gone on HRT in my early 50s as my naturopath suggested and that likely would have prevented the osteoporosis altogether. Alternatively, once diagnosed, had I gone on Forteo at that point, I technically would have been out of osteoporosis. Can't do it over but my mistakes inform my decisions moving forward.

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