Symptoms like hot flashes are really only the beginning when it comes to the potential side effects of menopause.
For the two million women who enter menopause each year in the United States, it’s no exaggeration to say that this hormonal transition is life-altering.
One of the best examples of this is the effect that menopause can have on bone health. It’s no coincidence that 80% of the 10 million people with osteoporosis in the US are women. Or that half of women will break a bone after the age of 50.
Given that May is Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month, board-certified gynecologist and Certified Menopause Practitioner Dr. Karen F. Brodman wants to focus on this important topic in this month’s blog post.
Your bones are living tissues that are constantly regenerating. Under normal circumstances, your bones are continually rebuilding themselves — old bone is naturally absorbed, and new bone growth comes in to maintain the density and strength of your bones.
This process is in constant motion throughout your life, creating a healthy balance between bone loss and new bone growth.
When you transition through menopause, this bone balance can be greatly affected. This is due to the fact that your estrogen hormones play a key role in your bone health — the hormones slow the natural breakdown of your bone.
So, when your estrogen levels drop after menopause, your bone breaks down more quickly, and new bone growth can’t keep up with the loss. By the numbers, women can lose about 20% of their bone density during and after the menopause transition.
As a result, your bones can become weaker, and you can develop osteoporosis.
This bone loss explains why half of women fracture a bone after the age of 50, and these later-in-life fractures can pose far more problems, especially in already weakened bones.
There are several ways in which women can prevent significant bone loss after menopause, including:
Given the connection between bone loss and the loss of reproductive hormones after menopause, it makes good sense to start there.
There’s an increasing amount of research that supports the use of hormone therapy to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
One study reports that menopause hormone therapy, “Prevents bone loss and the degradation of the bone microarchitecture but it significantly reduces the risk of fracture at all bone sites by 20-40%.”
Your bones respond to your activity — the more pressure you place on a bone, the more it will remodel itself so it can keep up.
This is why we encourage women to keep up with exercise, especially resistance and weight-bearing exercises that place more tension on their bones.
This type of exercise has been shown to slow the reabsorption of your bone and stimulate osteoblasts to form new bone.
Alongside hormone therapy and resistance training, we also want women to make sure that they have sufficient calcium and vitamin D levels because these nutrients and minerals support bone health.
You can get vitamin D from the sun and calcium from many food products, especially dairy products, calcium-fortified foods, and leafy greens.
If your bone loss has turned the corner into osteoporosis, we can also prescribe medications for you.
Clearly, there are good options for maintaining your bone health after menopause, and Dr. Brodman is happy to meet with you to figure out which approach would be best for your needs.
Please contact us to schedule an appointment at our New York City office located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
