Since osteoporosis — the lack of bone mass — was outlined as a illness within the Nineteen Nineties, most scientific consideration has targeted on girls, whose bone densities have a tendency to say no with hormone loss at menopause.
Whereas loads of proof now means that older males are additionally vulnerable to the situation, current analysis reveals that few are recognized, leaving them susceptible to life-changing fractures.
By some estimates, about 20 p.c of males over 50 will maintain an osteoporotic fracture throughout their later years; amongst seniors, males account for a few quarter of all hip fractures — and the outcomes can typically be deadly.
“A 50-year-old man is extra prone to die from the issues of a serious osteoporotic fracture than from prostate most cancers,” geriatrician Cathleen Colón-Emeric, MD, tells The New York Occasions.
By some estimates, about 20 p.c of males
over 50 will maintain an osteoporotic fracture
throughout their later years.
Girls routinely start bone-density testing at age 65, but most males are examined solely after a fracture happens.
When Colón-Emeric screened 866 aged male veterans with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans, the outcomes revealed indicators of osteoporosis or osteopenia in 51 p.c of them. The outcomes had been printed in JAMA Inside Medicine.
Many osteoporosis threat elements apply to males in addition to to girls, based on the Bone Well being and Osteoporosis Basis. These elements embody household historical past, taking steroid medicines, lack of train, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and low testosterone ranges.
However most physicians don’t order DEXA screening for males as a result of, as Colón-Emeric places it, “scientific apply pointers are everywhere in the place.”
Some skilled organizations suggest scans for males over 50 who’ve at the very least one threat issue, in addition to for all males over 70, however the American School of Physicians and the US Preventive Providers Activity Pressure have concluded that there isn’t sufficient proof to suggest screening for males who haven’t but had a fracture.
Whereas these organizations await extra persuasive analysis, it’s as much as males to lift the difficulty with their medical doctors.
This text initially appeared as “Males Endure from Brittle Bones Too” within the March/April 2026 subject of Expertise Life.
The put up Males Endure from Osteoporosis Too appeared first on Expertise Life.
