Women over 50 years of age show the most bone thinning because of deficiency of anabolic sex hormone production, especially estrogen and declining physical activity. In early menopause, estrogen replacement is effective therapy for conserving bone mass in women. Bone atrophy can be reduced in post menopausal women with hormone replacement, taken from age 50 onward. Cyclic estrogen and progesterone supplementation in post-menopausal women is the currently recommended strategy. Progesterone acts in concert with estrogen to increase bone formation, and decrease bone resorption, with a net increase in bone mass and strength.
Postmenopausal women given calcium alone show progressive bone de-mineralization.
Vitamin D is added at 800 iu per day and doses up to 4000 iu per day have been useful in postmenopausal women with established oseteopororosis. Measuring Bone Mineral Density. One of the reasons for doing a bone density measurement is to focus attention the need for preventive strategies in postmenopausal women. The test can be replaced by a policy that states that all postmenopausal women need preventive strategies, starting with daily exercise, proper nutrition and optionally, hormone replacement therapy if there are no contraindications. The drug also prevents steroid induced osteoporosis should be considered for use in all patients who require long-term steroid therapy.