Bone health without Estrogen/Ovaries

Glad you're healing well from surgery. 

I don't know the difference between being menopausal vs. peri-menopausal, but my understanding is that during the first 3-5 years after menopause women have a higher rate of bone loss, and then the rate of loss tapers off. So it's good to be investigating this now. Diet, exercise and supplements can help. Some women choose to take meds. SERMs, such as raloxifene and tamoxifen, can reduce the rate of bone loss in post-meno women. (and reduce the risk of BC recurrence too).

I'm concerned about bone health and asked for a referral to a bone doctor (endocrinologist) and I did my own research on docs. Turns out, most endocrinologists see many patients for other, non-bone issues. So if you choose to have a consultation on your bones, it's worth finding an endo with that expertise. Mine is the former head of the osteoporosis clinic at UCSF. He studied the detailed DEXA scan (not just the 1-2 page text description), and had an extensive intake form to understand my diet, exercise and other life factors. The good news is that you're young and that there are things you can do now to keep your bones strong. While doing this research I've learned that many patients don't think about bone health until they have breaks (when they are much older), so it's great to be ahead of the game.

Hope your healing from surgery continues to go well.

jill47, I'm much older than you are, did the Vitamin D3 o get my levels up to 50, cal1,500/mag600, and also 5 years on Arimidex.  All density tests were fine, and I LEARNED a great GREAT deal of that is GENETIC.  So, if your grandmother, mother had "good bones" that will make a major difference for you to.

Also listened to ruthbru on "AI SE Thread" - and still eat my pitted prunes.

Don't understand your last sentence about noting being on AI or tamoxifen cuz of BLMX - doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, unless you had a very, very low Oncotype DX result. 

Jill - serms are usually given to women who haven't had the surgery you've had.  You could take an AI now, best to talk all this over with your oncologist.  The SERMS are usually given to women who haven't yet gone thru menopause.

Remember, ALL this is something you need to be talking over with your medical team.  Good luck.

Sunflowers, wow, good for you. My understanding is that since AIs suppress estrogen they aren't able to help build or preserve bone, so maybe you saw the benefit of some of other things you were doing. Since I'm concerned about my own bone health, can I ask what other things you were doing? diet, exercise, etc? I want to know all the things that can work. thanks. (p.s. if you're posted this in another thread, feel free to just point me there. thanks!)

That is so wierd how tamox works differently for pre & post menopausal women.

jill, yeah, it is weird. My endocrinologist kept saying that tamox behaves differently in different "estrogen milieus."  FWIW, since my MO was pretty insistent that tamox is all-good, all-the-time, I did get help doing research and there are papers that back up the endocrinologist (including one he sent me.) Finally, my MO consented that maybe it was true but...she still thinks the cancer-fighting properties are worth it, even if it risks bone health. 

http://www.sciencecodex.com/calcium_supplements_may_not_prevent_bone_loss_in_women_with_breast_cancer-118183

Calcium supplements may not prevent bone loss in women with breast cancer

The study cited used 500-1500mg of calcium, and 200-1000IU of Vitamin D, which are lower levels of supplementation such as what you might find in a multi-vitamin.  I think many of us take these supplements at higher doses, particularly the Vitamin D, so I wouldn't throw in the towel on whether or not supplementation is a failure.

For women diagnosed with pure DCIS, and no invasive cancer, bi-lateral mastectomy provides a recurrence risk of 1-2% over 10 years.  Tamoxifen is the only approved hormonal therapy for pure DCIS, and may reduce that risk by 50%, so a net benefit of only 1% at best, possibly being offset by potential side effects.

cp418, thanks for the link to that article. Sometimes these summarized versions create more questions for me, so I found the original article and posted it in a separate thread (in case members here missed it in this thread)

Ladies, do not "get" the T score thing. What are the parameters for needing a bone drug?

They just say your T score is low. What is low? MUST we take bone drugs? My onc wants to do them as he said they lower risk of recurrence. I happen to know that this is now a flawed study. It's been published by Memorial Sloan that they do NOT statistically lower our risk of bc recurrences. When I asked him he did not know of it.