Boning up on the State of My Bones

As many of you know, I am currently what the medical establishment so charmingly calls “postmenopausal.” This comes with many of its own joys and some new responsibilities toward my health. According to the aforementioned medical establishment, I'm supposed to, like Sally Field, be worried about the state of my bones. There's a whole industry that has grown up around "women of a certain age" being frightened about falling and breaking a bone. Especially a hip.

We're supposed to be doing weight bearing exercises -- building our bones with power walking and weight lifting. We're supposed to get lots of calcium and, if our doctor advises, take the medication that the last pharmaceutical representative who visited his office told him about.

I never really worried about my bones before. There is no history of osteoporosis in my family, and although my grandmother broke her hip, she was quite advanced in age when it happened. Although I can't eat or drink dairy products, I've been taking the appropriate combination of supplements (calcium plus magnesium plus vitamin D) that are supposed to make up for that missing chunk in my food pyramid. I've always exercised, either jogging or walking or kicking it on the elliptical trainer. And I've been doing upper body weight lifting consistently for the past five years.

Yet I still want to have that bone density test. I want a number. I want to know that I'm okay. Yes, this has been drummed into me by my culture and the media, because, logically, why would I feel validated about getting a number?

I just want to know what I'm up against. I do have, well, not the classic risk factors, but some of the minor ones -- I've been a vegan on and off, I started menopause early, and I have difficulty absorbing nutrients from my digestive system.

But just try getting a bone density test out of your insurance company when you don't fit the guidelines. Yes, they will cover it, but only if I have a family history of osteoporosis or my doctor suspects I might have osteoporosis. But isn't it logical that after menopause, when our bones tend to thin, a test like this should be mandatory? That giving me a baseline figure while I can still do something about any potential bone loss would be much cheaper than waiting until I have osteoporosis or, find out that I do after having broken a bone?

So I thought I would get one at the health fair. Several women I have known told me that you can get one there free, but last year, I arrived too late and missed all the sign-ups. This year, I got in early enough, I had my test, and it was not good. The young woman who took my scan told me that I needed to call my doctor and get a full-on bone density test.

Maybe this will get my insurance company to finally cover it.

Meanwhile, there's nothing I can do. I'm concerned because I don't really know what this means, or if bone loss is reversible. I just know that I don't want to take another drug that has more side effects than benefits.

Have any of you tested positive for osteopenia or osteoporosis? If yes, is there a noninvasive treatment?

(Illustration by Eric Shalley.)