Osteoporosis which literally means “Porous bone” is a disease related to bones which weakens the bones and increases the risk of unexpected fractures. The disease does not have any visible symptoms and is not exposed until the weakened bones lead to fractures especially in hips or back. The disease is predominant among women and one third of women in the world above the age of fifty are said to have osteoporosis.
Our bones are made of living tissue which grows and remodels itself continuously. There is dense bone which forms the outer shell and protects the internal trabecular bone which is sponge-like and is of soft nature. People, who suffer from osteoporosis, will have the holes in these sponge-like bones enlarged and this weakens the structure of the bones internally.
When people are young (less than 30 years of age) the bone mass is increased and bones are stronger. But after this age, the bones begin to breakdown leading to loss of bone mass gradually. When this bone mass reduces below a threshold level, the person suffers from Osteoporosis.
Postmenopausal Osteoporosis is very common among women over the age of forty and is usually caused as a result of menopause. There is a straight forward relationship between lack of estrogen hormone and osteoporosis in women. In case of some women early menopause can occur (i.e., below the age of 40) and this leads to Osteoporosis. In case of delayed periods during which the level of estrogen hormone is less and menstrual period is absent, there can be some bone mass reduction leading to the disease.
Postmenopausal Osteoporosis is very common and deadly than premenopausal osteoporosis as it occurs to people of age above 40. Women who have experienced menopause recently will have greater osteoclasts which are cells responsible for the destruction of bones than normal women who haven’t experienced menopause. Also, the menopause naturally leads to the decrease in production of estrogen hormone as a woman becomes sterile after menopause. But estrogen is also important for the regulation of remodeling cycle in bones. So, women can experience rapid loss of bones after their menopause. Estrogen helps in regulating the bone remodeling and keeps it under control but since the amount of estrogen secretion becomes low, the bone mass gets reduced. There are 2 types of cells that play dominant role in bone remodeling, osteoclasts which help in bone resorption (bone eating) and osteoblasts which help in bone formation. Due to lack of sufficient estrogen, osteoclasts become more dominant and bone resorption or bone loss occurs at faster rate than bone formation leading to the weakening of bones.
So, it is very clear that menopause has some direct impact on Osteoporosis as it leads to bone loss due to the insufficient secretion of estrogen hormone in women. The excessive bone loss leads to thinning of bones in women over age of 40 who have experienced menopause.
Osteoporosis which literally means “Porous bone” is a disease related to bones which weakens the bones and increases the risk of unexpected fractures. The disease does not have any visible symptoms and is not exposed until the weakened bones lead to fractures especially in hips or back. The disease is predominant among women and one third of women in the world above the age of fifty are said to have osteoporosis.
Our bones are made of living tissue which grows and remodels itself continuously. There is dense bone which forms the outer shell and protects the internal trabecular bone which is sponge-like and is of soft nature. People, who suffer from osteoporosis, will have the holes in these sponge-like bones enlarged and this weakens the structure of the bones internally.
When people are young (less than 30 years of age) the bone mass is increased and bones are stronger. But after this age, the bones begin to breakdown leading to loss of bone mass gradually. When this bone mass reduces below a threshold level, the person suffers from Osteoporosis.
Postmenopausal Osteoporosis is very common among women over the age of forty and is usually caused as a result of menopause. There is a straight forward relationship between lack of estrogen hormone and osteoporosis in women. In case of some women early menopause can occur (i.e., below the age of 40) and this leads to Osteoporosis. In case of delayed periods during which the level of estrogen hormone is less and menstrual period is absent, there can be some bone mass reduction leading to the disease.
Postmenopausal Osteoporosis is very common and deadly than premenopausal osteoporosis as it occurs to people of age above 40. Women who have experienced menopause recently will have greater osteoclasts which are cells responsible for the destruction of bones than normal women who haven’t experienced menopause. Also, the menopause naturally leads to the decrease in production of estrogen hormone as a woman becomes sterile after menopause. But estrogen is also important for the regulation of remodeling cycle in bones. So, women can experience rapid loss of bones after their menopause. Estrogen helps in regulating the bone remodeling and keeps it under control but since the amount of estrogen secretion becomes low, the bone mass gets reduced. There are 2 types of cells that play dominant role in bone remodeling, osteoclasts which help in bone resorption (bone eating) and osteoblasts which help in bone formation. Due to lack of sufficient estrogen, osteoclasts become more dominant and bone resorption or bone loss occurs at faster rate than bone formation leading to the weakening of bones.
So, it is very clear that menopause has some direct impact on Osteoporosis as it leads to bone loss due to the insufficient secretion of estrogen hormone in women. The excessive bone loss leads to thinning of bones in women over age of 40 who have experienced menopause.
The Relationship between Uterine Fibroids and Breasts Uterine fibroids are simply overgrowths of cells on the uterine wall. Fibrocystic breasts are breasts that develop lumpy, thick nodules. While both of these conditions hit women primarily in their pre-menopausal years, they are not related in the sense that one causes the other. Just because you might get one of them does not mean you will get the other one.
Both conditions are associated, at times, with an overabundance of estrogen and/or progesterone because both usually strike in the “high-estrogen” years of a woman’s life. These are usually the years preceding the onset of menopause. The uterus and the breasts both share common hormones because the hormones which prepare the breasts to secrete milk (during pregnancy) are the same as the ones that promote cell growth in the uterus. However, the two conditions, fibroids and fibrocystic breasts, have not been found to be related.
Fibroid Tumors
Fibroids are present in a large percentage of women and range in size from tiny (pinpoint) to huge (as big as a full-term pregnancy). Most women do not have any major symptoms with small fibroids but, if they should grow large, they can cause a number of problems, such as heavy menstrual periods, back pain, cramps, and bladder pressure. Fibroids start shrinking after menopause but if they grow large enough to cause problems, they are usually removed by having either a surgical hysterectomy or myomectomy. Hysterectomies involve removing the uterus while myomectomies take just the fibroid tumor itself.
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is a form of treatment that is used to treat women who have severe menopause symptoms. It was once a highly favored treatment for other diseases, such as osteoporosis and heart disease, but has been abandoned for those causes since recent research revealed that using it posed significant health risks. It is still used to treat menopausal symptoms in some women, although many doctors and patients have backed off of using it as much as they once did.
Hormone replacement therapy involves using synthetic hormones to replace the hormones that menopausal women are no longer able to make on their own. Women who still have their ovaries and uterus usually need a combination of estrogen and progesterone but women who have undergone hysterectomy just need estrogen. Using HRT usually helps the bothersome symptoms of menopause, especially if the symptoms are severe.
In addition to prescribing HRT for menopausal women, physicians once prescribed Hormone Replacement Therapy for osteoporosis and heart conditions. A few years ago, HRT was being hailed as an effective and safe anti-aging treatment. However, after the results of research pertaining to its long-term effects, HRT is usually no longer used for anything other than severe menopause symptoms.
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