We can't change genetics, age or sex. But we can caution patients about the effects of obesity, trauma, smoking, surgery, overuse of joints in certain occupations and the benefits of regular exercise. We know that boxers get OA of the hands and football players get OA of the knee. Surgery and later damage to the joints can cause premature arthritis. Menisectomy for a torn meniscus is almost always followed within one to two decades by osteoarthritis of the knee.
Some reports are enthusiastic about the use of long-term estrogen therapy.
The use of the Estraderm patch or the pill suggests it will delay the onset and progression of OA of the knees and hands in women. But, theoretically, it should be possible to develop a drug that either controls the inflammatory process or degeneration of cartilage. After all, we do have the means to control the inflammatory process in rheumatoid arthritis. Minocycline and doxycycline also have potential disease-modifying activities. It's an unlevel playing field when you appraise alternative and conventional therapies.