Instead, women are carefully questioned about family history that might reveal a disposition toward heart disease. Only if heart disease runs in the family would the clinic be tempted to run a stress test. Most men don't go to the bone-densitometry lab. I did so only because of the association between kidney stones and bone loss. Mild bone loss in both men and women begins in the late 20s.
Appropriate treatment is the big question.
Estrogen replacement to stem the loss can increase the risk of breast cancer and, unless progestin is added in, endometrial cancer. A new medication, raloxifene, appears to stabilize bone loss while reducing the risk of breast cancer. Unlike traditional hormone-replacement therapy, however, raloxifene doesn't ease other menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes. Proper diet and exercise are the most effective ways of avoiding or alleviating osteoporosis. So women taking the clinic's physical receive more focused advice from registered dietitian Cindy Moore than do men.