Understanding Osteoporosis: The Silent Disease Affecting Millions of Women

Osteoporosis is a condition that affects bone health, especially in women and the population nearing 65 years of age and above. It is a condition found in millions of women, but proper diagnosis is done, and treatment measures are followed only by a comparatively small population. 

Since women have a high tendency to disregard their pain, they often consider the warning symptoms of this condition to be just something occurring from long work hours. Let's understand osteoporosis in women, it's possible treatments, and tips on how to prevent it. 

Understanding Osteoporosis in Women 

Osteoporosis is regarded as a silent disease because the condition progresses until a fracture occurs, and the doctor conducts a scan to confirm the diagnosis. This fracture usually comes up as a sudden fracture, and it becomes highly suspicious as the fracture is due to very small pressure or fall, which may not otherwise create a fracture.

Women are trained to juggle multiple chores and run errands to different extents; they contribute to weakness or associated bone pain due to exhaustion and often neglect it. A gradual development of change in posture and height occurs in osteoporosis, which sometimes people regard as an adaptive change made for the ease of standing or working. 

Why are women likely to get affected by osteoporosis? 

Women, as we said, are at the highest risk of developing this condition. The main reason for osteoporosis in women is female hormones called estrogen. The decrease in this hormone can directly affect bone health after menopause. This can cause a drastic decrease in the density of bones from there onwards. 

Estrogen promotes the occurrence and progression of osteoporosis in women until and unless adequate supplements to maintain bone health are taken by the individual.

The fall of estrogen can cause a great trigger in the progression of osteoporosis. However, apart from menopause, other factors can cause an increase. This includes:

• As age increases, the amount of estrogen production decreases, especially above 45 years.

• Early menopause, before 45 years, can also trigger.

• Hysterectomy surgery before 45 years of age can cause a sudden decrease in the production of estrogen, attributed to the removal of the uterus and ovaries.

• Amenorrhea or absence of a period for more than 6 months can be due to hormonal changes, and the same indirectly affects bone health.

• Overactive thyroid parathyroids and pituitary disorders also trigger the condition.

Other major risk factors for this osteoporosis are:

• Heredity or family history
• Hip fracture of parental history
• Low BMI
• Prolonged usage of steroids
• History of arthritis
• Alcoholic intake and smoking
• Other hormone therapies
• Malabsorption syndromes 

How is Osteoporosis Diagnosed? 

The signs and symptoms of osteoporosis often go unnoticed, as in most cases, they are mistaken for simple joint pain or exhaustion due to workload by women. But as the condition progresses, they can express the following symptoms:

• Severe back pain, which can progress to or could be due to a collapse or fracture in the spine.
• Increased joint pain
• Severe pricking pain in bones.
• Stooping forward in posture, sometimes accustomed to spine malformations like kyphosis.
• Unnoticed reduction in height
• Some may even feel shortness of breath.
• Unexpected fractures resulting from relatively normal activities. For example, falling from a very small height or a very minor slipping, which otherwise would not cause any fracture. 

Osteoporosis is primarily suspected when an X-ray is done after a fall or fracture. The results of this X-ray can show areas of decreased bone density. Once this is seen, doctors recommend you take a DEXA scan, DX scan, or bone density scan. This diagnostic test is done as a confirmatory test for osteoporosis. 

Possible Treatment For Osteoporosis 

Complete reversal or cure of osteoporosis hasn’t been possible so far. However, bone maintenance and bone density improvement by drug intake are considered the primary line of management. Treatment protocols planned for a patient with osteoporosis mainly depend on the severe reduction of bone density.

• In certain cases, women may require estrogen therapy. However, considering the potential chances that unwanted estrogen therapy can create a risk of breast cancer and stroke, it is only given to young patients and patients at menopause. 

• Raloxifene is one such SERM (selective estrogen receptor modulator) that is most commonly opted for patients with osteoporosis for improving bone density.

• Kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty are two surgical options often considered for spinal and vertebral fractures in osteoporosis.

• Other surgeries performed in patients with osteoporosis are mainly hip and knee joint replacement surgeries, etc. Surgeries done in osteoporosis are aimed at correcting the fracture only. In most surgeries, faulty bones are replaced with artificial grafts. 

• Physical therapy has helped to reduce pain in some patients.

• Usually, categories of drugs like bisphosphonates, SERMs, parathyroid hormone treatments in the form of injections, Biological medicines, Calcium, and vitamin D supplements are the usually used medications for osteoporosis treatment.

Tips to Prevent Osteoporosis

Following are a few helpful tips to adopt to prevent osteoporosis:

• Try to perform bone-bearing exercises like jogging, walking, climbing stairs, etc.
• Include calcium in your diet, which is enough to meet the minimum recommended dietary allowance (RDA), which is around 1000mg. 
• Avoid alcohol, smoking, and other substance abuse.
• Monitor your vitamin D levels regularly and take supplements for the same. 
• Take bone health-improving supplements daily.
• Get regular health checkups and bone density scans over a certain interval of time.
• Including more amounts of greens, nuts, tofu, soybean, fish, cereal bread, etc., in a diet can help to improve bone health.

Wrapping up,

Osteoporosis can go unnoticed for a very long time, and it can eventually disrupt the everyday activities of a patient. Its irreversible nature makes it much more hectic to deal with every day. The earliest diagnosis and proper drug therapy can prevent it from further progression. However, all individuals nearing their 40s should get a bone density test done for preventive purposes.

At Apollo Spectra Hospitals, we are devoted to providing advanced healthcare services accustomed to best-in-class diagnostic and therapeutic tools. With advanced therapeutic and diagnostic aids and a multidisciplinary panel of experts, we are concerned with delivering the best healthcare services with compassion. Consult our expert orthopedic consultants today to get interrogated for your concerns and have them treated as best as possible for a healthier tomorrow.