First off, a comment about a mistake I made earlier. This is what comes from posting from memory without the source right in front of me. I wasn’t much off, but I was off a bit. According to the Harvard Health Publications Special Report on Osteoporosis, “it affects approximately 90% of women over age 75.” (p1). This isn’t exactly how I put it earlier, which I think suggested that that big a percentage WOULD have it. But since they are learning more about it, how to diagnose it, and coming up with treatments, perhaps in our lifetime the numbers at that age could be different.
Secondly, Jan mentioned that the osteo issue is related to thyroid meds, and it CAN be, but isn’t necessarily. The distinction is that being hyperthyroid causes us to lose bone density. Insofar as the thyroid replacement hormone can make us hyperthyroid (and it can if we take too much of it), then, yes, it can affect bone density. But if we are on an appropriate dose of it it shouldn’t. There are several drugs which can cause us to lose bone density. The Harvard publication lists them on p.6 and states that thyroid hormone “in excessive doses” can cause it. That is the important part.
Those of us who don’t “feel” right at the dose the endo wants us to stay at, and who insist that they increase our replacement hormone to where we DO “feel right”, need to pay particular attention to calcium needs. If you are, in fact, hyperthyroid at that dose, even slightly, and even though you feel “better” , you will be losing calcium from your bones. I suspect that this is why some of our endos give us such a hard time about inching up the dose a bit, because endos also treat osteoporosis.
Bobbi
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