Has anyone taken Alendronate?

Yes, for over five years. It worked great for the first two years and I saw significant improvement in my lumbar spine T-scores and a small improvement in my hips. After that, my scores stayed the same for a couple of years then my spine started to decrease.

I fractured while on it (T-8 compression fracture) which is unusual. This occurred just after my fifth year when I was considering going off it for a "drug holiday".

I knew nothing about this drug when I started in 2018, only that some people had trouble with esophageal reflux while on it and that there was a small risk of "atypical femur fracture" which I dismissed.

I think it can be a helpful medication if you are losing bone at menopause and HRT isn't helping. However, I would not recommend staying on it for longer than three years as it eventually causes all bone remodeling to stop which means you don't replace aging bone and it can become brittle.

If you have any specific questions, please let me know and I can share more on my experience.

P.S. If you are already diagnosed with osteoporosis, I would also recommend consulting with an endocrinologist on the best course of action. This is a lifetime diagnosis and there are a number of medications that can be used it, each with different actions and impacts. More experts feel that there is a certain order to take these drugs in and starting on alendronate may limit the effect of any drug you take later.

thank you so much for your response.

I've been taking Alendronate for almost one year. I've had none of the major possible side effects listed with the medication. I do follow the directions precisely. I don't know whether it's helping my bone density but hopefully will find out sometime in the near future with another scan.

Thank you!

I also have been taking alendronate for about 1 year with almost no major side effects (some bone pain; took a 2-3 week drug holiday, pain subsided), other than a bit of constipation (IBS sufferer though, so used to GI issues!). Had 2nd dexa scan which showed improvement the doc was happy with (no improvement in femoral neck however). Now he wants to try reclast which I am not really interested in as the alendronate is helping and tolerable for me. Who knows what will happen with a once a year injection. Probably nothing but better bones - but the osteo drugs out there have a lot of issues. Then again an osteoporosis diagnosis is a big issue!

Good morning! Very appreciative to have this group for information and help! It has been a year of taking fosomax and algaecal. The results are in and the medication, supplements, exercise and diet change all worked positively. I am ostopenic now !yey!as per the results, yet still have osteoporosis on my L3. I have my dr’s appt this coming Thursday. I al guessing he will want me to continue on fosomax because of that one vertebrae…. Just wanted an opinion here if maybe I can get off of fosomax and continue algaecal , exercise and diet, or go for one more year of fosomax? Also do these need to be forever medications? Or once ostopenic one can diacontinue? Thanks in advance for your help!

I was on Fosamax starting 4/2023, followed directions carefully, developed severe acid reflux 2/2024 seemingly out of the blue, stopped meds and now on Reclast with no side effects since 9/2024. I did have gains from the Fosamax in my spine moving into the osteopenia range, hips remained the same. So if you have any GI issues discuss with your MD before taking Fosamax. Best of luck with your journey!

That's a great question and I wish I knew the right answer. I have been off Fosamax now for over a year but did two rounds of anabolics (total of six months of treatment) from June to February.

I was started on Tymlos because of the vertebral compression fracture. Long story short: I had side effects from both Tymlos then generic teriparatide that caused me to stop taking all meds about a month ago.

I have an appointment next week with a endocrinologist at the Stanford Bone Clinic for guidance on what to do next. I am on supplements (calcium, D, K, collagen) and an exercise program that emphasizes resistance training and impact.

I have enough alendronate in my bones at this point to last for decades so I want to know if I can stay off meds until my next DEXA and reevaluate then. That's pretty much my plan and unless I get some compelling reasons not to do that, that's what I'm going to do.

I am also through the critical bone loss period of menopause so I'm hopeful I can stabilize.

I'm not opposed to another med but I want to push it out as far as I can because I am 63 and there are (hopefully) a lot of years left in my life.

That's great that you've had improvement! Knowing that it works for others gives me a positive outlook. Good for you! I see my doctor in June and hopefully she'll schedule me for a second scan.

I've never had any gastrointestinal problems. Well, I take that back. At the beginning I did have a lot of gas, quite a lot more than usual! But that seems to have subsided. I don't have problems with constipation -- I make sure I eat a bowl of oatmeal with almond milk and blueberries most mornings. That helps greatly. I have the minor ache or pain, which may or may not be due to the Alendronate. But I can always blame it on that anyway!

I'm not sure what I think about the other meds. Like you, I would worry with the once a year injection. They all seem to have some major side effects, though in an extremely small sample of the population. Still...