| Many studies have shown hormone replacement | | | | to ninety years. Currently, the average life span for |
| therapy to be the most effective treatment for the | | | | the American woman is eighty-five, so hormone |
| maintenance of bone size and strength and for the | | | | therapy in effect enables the majority of women to |
| prophylaxis of bone fractures. This kind of treatment | | | | escape fractures. Post menopausal women who use |
| must be taken for fifteen to twenty years to | | | | estrogen therapy have a sixty percent lower risk of |
| prevent osteoporosis effectively. After three years | | | | osteoporotic fractures than women who do not. As |
| of treatment, menopausal women who receive | | | | women continue to live longer, they may need to |
| estrogen therapy have about ten percent more bone | | | | take hormone replacement for longer periods; the |
| than those not on this form of treatment. | | | | ideal solution would be to reprogram the ovaries to |
| Hormone replacement therapy is a powerful tool | | | | pump out estrogen indefinitely. |
| against osteoporosis because it not only reduces the | | | | Aside from estrogen, some progestogens (hormones |
| loss of bone minerals, but also slows the loss of | | | | similar in effect to progesterone) have worthwhile |
| collagen from the deeper layers of the skin and it is | | | | ability in reducing bone loss. This provides another |
| said that this effect slows the rate of aging of the | | | | reason for combining estrogens and progestogens in |
| skin. It is safe to say that hormone replacement | | | | hormone replacement therapy prescriptions. |
| therapy is good not only for your inner layers but for | | | | Preventing osteoporosis is an important not only for |
| your outer layer as well. | | | | our individual wellbeing, but also for the sake of |
| Osteoporosis can cause the bony vertebrae of the | | | | society as a whole. The percentage of older persons |
| spine to become weak and spongy. Compression | | | | in our population is increasing and while today's |
| fractures of the spinal vertebra are characterized by | | | | affluent society has the resources to care for the |
| crushed triangular wedges from their once-rectangular | | | | health of these people, this may not always be so. |
| solid forms. Compression fractures cause a loss of | | | | Epidemiologists estimate that by the year 2025, the |
| height, a protruding abdomen and a curved posture, | | | | percentage of persons under fifteen years of age will |
| with compression of the spinal nerves that causes | | | | have gone from approximately thirty-five percent to |
| sharp shooting pains in the spine and limbs. At | | | | approximately nineteen percent, while the percentage |
| present, one in four American women over the age | | | | of persons over sixty-four years of age will have |
| of sixty and at their post menopausal stage have | | | | increased from approximately four percent to roughly |
| one or more spinal compression fractures. | | | | sixteen percent. The smaller number of younger |
| A loss of bone mass commonly occurs in the hips | | | | persons will find it increasingly difficult to support the |
| and without preventive treatment, fifty percent of | | | | health of the larger number of older persons, both |
| post menopausal women are at risk of hip fracture | | | | financially and socially. To avoid the high cost to |
| by the age of seventy-five. Taking estrogen | | | | society of providing health care for our aging |
| replacement therapy for fifteen years after | | | | population, we must use the tools of preventive |
| menopause postpones the age of high fracture risk | | | | medicine while we are in midlife. |