Help needed to read DXA

If the negative number is less negative than before, that's good! Your spine went from -3.9 to -3.1. Your left neck went from -2.9 to -2.4. Those are gains! And, you still have another year to make further gains.

@njx58
Oh thank you!
I was reading it the opposite, that my spine went from -3.9 to -3.10!
I will be seeing my endocrinologist soon but my anxiety was building until then.
I appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

@mundy Your doctor will be happy with those results!

Think of it as a number line:

-3.9 -3.8 -3.7 -3.6 -3.5 -3.4 -3.3 -3.2 -3.1

These are good results! The medication is working. Keep doing what you're doing and hopefully you will improve even more as you continue treatment.

@mundy
Congratulations! Your new Tscores show improvements at all three sites (lumbar spine, total hip, and femoral neck), which is impressive overall after 1yr of Tymlos, especially since the hip and femoral neck are typically the hardest areas to improve.

If you have the actual BMD values (g/cm2), you can calculate the percent change using
(BMD2025 - BMD2023) /BMD2023 x 100%
Some DXA reports generate the BMD % change for us.

Somewhere in the DXA report (often in the footnote) the Least Significant Change (LSC) is listed. If your BMD change is greater than the LSC, then the change is considered statistically significant rather than due to normal machine-related variation.

@mundy

Please let us know how it goes with your endocrinologist.

@mayblin
I am looking for the LSC you reference but cannot find anything on any of the 3 DEXA reports I have since 2022. The reports are Hologic. This 'normal variation' number would seem to be very helpful for many of us with small numerical changes.