Many studies have shown hormone replacement therapy to be the most effective treatment for the maintenance of bone size and strength and for the prophylaxis of bone fractures. This kind of treatment must be taken for fifteen to twenty years to prevent osteoporosis effectively. After three years of treatment, menopausal women who receive estrogen therapy have about ten percent more bone than those not on this form of treatment.
Hormone replacement therapy is a powerful tool against osteoporosis because it not only reduces the loss of bone minerals, but also slows the loss of collagen from the deeper layers of the skin and it is said that this effect slows the rate of aging of the skin. It is safe to say that hormone replacement therapy is good not only for your inner layers but for your outer layer as well.
Osteoporosis can cause the bony vertebrae of the spine to become weak and spongy. Compression fractures of the spinal vertebra are characterized by crushed triangular wedges from their once-rectangular solid forms. Compression fractures cause a loss of height, a protruding abdomen and a curved posture, with compression of the spinal nerves that causes sharp shooting pains in the spine and limbs. At present, one in four American women over the age of sixty and at their post menopausal stage have one or more spinal compression fractures.
A loss of bone mass commonly occurs in the hips and without preventive treatment, fifty percent of post menopausal women are at risk of hip fracture by the age of seventy-five. Taking estrogen replacement therapy for fifteen years after menopause postpones the age of high fracture risk to ninety years. Currently, the average life span for the American woman is eighty-five, so hormone therapy in effect enables the majority of women to escape fractures. Post menopausal women who use estrogen therapy have a sixty percent lower risk of osteoporotic fractures than women who do not. As women continue to live longer, they may need to take hormone replacement for longer periods; the ideal solution would be to reprogram the ovaries to pump out estrogen indefinitely.
Aside from estrogen, some progestogens (hormones similar in effect to progesterone) have worthwhile ability in reducing bone loss. This provides another reason for combining estrogens and progestogens in hormone replacement therapy prescriptions.
Preventing osteoporosis is an important not only for our individual wellbeing, but also for the sake of society as a whole. The percentage of older persons in our population is increasing and while today's affluent society has the resources to care for the health of these people, this may not always be so. Epidemiologists estimate that by the year 2025, the percentage of persons under fifteen years of age will have gone from approximately thirty-five percent to approximately nineteen percent, while the percentage of persons over sixty-four years of age will have increased from approximately four percent to roughly sixteen percent. The smaller number of younger persons will find it increasingly difficult to support the health of the larger number of older persons, both financially and socially. To avoid the high cost to society of providing health care for our aging population, we must use the tools of preventive medicine while we are in midlife.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Menopause | |
