Linda K is a 65 year old female patient who has a history of osteoporosis due to menopause. She has been a patient since 2014, when she was 7 years post menopausal and 55 years of age. At that time, she had been treated with Fosamax, a conventional medicine used to treat osteoporosis, and her bone density test in 2013 revealed osteopenia. In addition to osteopenia, she had menopausal symptoms and was initially treated with a bioidentical hormone skin cream containing estrogens, testosterone, and progesterone as well as nutritional support including calcium hydroxyapatite, a type of calcium found in bone and teeth, strontium, and vitamins K2 and D3 as well as a multivitamin. Weight -bearing exercise was recommended. Despite this regimen, her blood hormone levels were not optimal due to poor absorption of the hormone creams, so we switched to pellet implants of estradiol and testosterone combined with oral progesterone capsules. On this regimen, she felt great and has continued her treatment. Her blood hormone levels have been optimal. As we can see by the images below, her bone density has steadily improved over the years. She has not been using any other drugs for osteoporosis. Her improvement is due to the hormone implants, nutritional support and weight bearing exercise. I recommend exercises such as jumping rope, jogging, trampoline jumps, back squats in the gym with a barbell on the shoulders (do with a trainer until you can do this safely) or similar exercise machines. Another interesting way to get exercise benefits is by using a vibrating plate which you stand on. “Powerplate” makes a nice (but expensive) machine, but there are other less expensive models available as well. These vibrations can induce bone growth just like exercise. Linda’s bone density results are below. Those with sharp eyes will notice her bone density decreased slightly from 2022-2024. This is because she stopped her pellet treatment during 2022 while being treated for a small breast precancerous lesion, which has been now removed. She resumed her pellet treatment in March 2023, but had already lost bone density during her year off pellet treatment. I have recommended she continue with her testosterone pellets as there is no evidence in the medical literature of any harm to the breasts and there is evidence that treatment with testosterone pellets actually reduces the risk of breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence. More on that subject in a future blog post.
