bone degeneration, surgery and menopause

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Clareasks
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Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:46 pm
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by Clareasks on Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:08 pm

bone degeneration, surgery and menopause

Hi
I am a 43 year old woman who is post menopause. I have been to Gyno specialist today and he has prescribed a bone scan as my family has ridiculous back issues, my older brother had his whole back fused with surgery 5 years ago as 'his job' cause a massive deteriation of his spine, my mother has both osteo arthiitis and osteo perosis of the spine and has just recently been confirmed with scoliosis, my grandmother refused to get treatment but she ended up doubled over and about 4' tall from 5'6. I have lower DDD L4&5 and am currently waiting to see if a chiropractor can help aliviate the pain in my back.(tried traction, all that did was cause worse pain and medial spasms) I am a VERY FIT lady, running my own fitness business and train daily without many problems, A few exercises set my back off but I know how the manage the problem. My Q is is there an alternative to Climagest 1mg? My Gyno want my bone to remain strong until normal onsett of menopause. And as my family have a huge risk factor he thinks I should take them for 7 yrs. I have been very lucky I know as the only symptoms I have experienced were 1.5 stone gain in the space of 5wks!! (which believe me if you knew me is very unusual) very eratic sleeping patterns, or lack of sleep full stop. no sweats, flushes, tears, well I've been very lucky but I am just not sure HRT is the way to go. Can you give me any ideas or alternative ideas to fight off the bone degeneration? many thanks,., :D

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Mr Robin Crawford
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Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:02 pm
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by Mr Robin Crawford on Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:29 pm

Re: bone degeneration, surgery and menopause

The HRT in the form of climagest is very reasonable. Exercise can be helpful with menopausal symptoms but I am unsure whether they are much use for the erratic sleep. A bone density scan soon will give you a baseline as to where you are with respect to osteoporosis now and whether you should use bone building therapy directly especially given your history, There is no reason why you cannot see how you are doing over the next 4- 6 months before using the HRT to see whether your normal regime is okay with your symptoms Best wishes
Mr Robin Crawford
Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist

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Dr Sarah Gray
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:27 am
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by Dr Sarah Gray on Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:31 pm

Re: bone degeneration, surgery and menopause

The average age of the last period in the UK is 52 and the earlier your periods finish before then the earlier bone loss will start and the higher your risk of fracture when you are elderly. Exercise and a healthy diet are hugely important to offset the ravages due to the early loss of estrogen but will slow the decline rather than prevent it. HRT will prevent this loss and has really very good data to show that it reduces fractures for years after it is stopped. There are many options for hormone replacement and you may prefer patches or gel to the tablets.Sleep disturbance is one of the recognised symtoms and if yours is still disturbed with the climagest you may need a higher dose. Younger women usually do. It is also recognised that early menopause carries an increased risk for both cardiac disease and dementia in later life...just to throw into the mix. You might value the chance to talk it all through with a menopause expert.
Dr Sarah Gray
Primary Care Lead for NHS Cornwall for Women's Health and Cancer

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