Can menopause lead to osteoporosis?

When you hit menopause, your ovaries reduce the production of a hormone, called estrogen. Estrogen has its hand in a huge range of bodily functions (not those ones), including bone health. In young, healthy women, if all is well on the bone front, bone is remodeled daily. This means that bone is built up more than it’s broken down, which makes sense since that’s when you do most of your growing (vertically, that is). But somewhere in your 30s, bone resorption (break down) begins exceeding bone build up.

 

Now let’s add estrogen into the mix. Before menopause, estrogen preserves bone density by protecting the cells in charge of building up bones. Without estrogen as your bone bodyguard, you end up losing bone. Estrogen’s disappearing act during menopause exacerbates already weakened bones and increases your risk for osteoporosis.

A woman's risk for osteoporosis, a disease that makes bones fragile, rises dramatically after menopause. That's not a coincidence. One of the most important changes a woman undergoes during menopause is a dramatic drop in estrogen levels. This hormone plays many critical roles in a woman's body, including beefing up bones.

Women tend to lose bone mass rapidly in the first few years after menopause. Osteoporosis occurs when bone becomes too thin, making it vulnerable to fractures. Talk with your doctor about ways you can lower your risk for osteoporosis.

The female hormone estrogen directly affects bone health. After menopause, bone breakdown occurs faster than new bone growth because of the decline in estrogen. With this comes a progressive loss of bone mass. Osteoporosis is the disease that results in this loss of bone mass and reduction in bone strength. As bones weaken, there can be an increase in the risk of broken bones.