Would you see an Endocrinologist or a Rheumatologist? It seems that they both deal with osteoporosis, how do you choose which to see?
Endocrinologist, but you want want that has a strong focus on osteoporosis. I made a mistake (well, I was referred by my GP) and had one who was a well-respected endocrinologist, but I finally figured out that she really wasn’t up to speed on osteoporosis. She got very annoyed at me for challenging some of her recommendations, and I switched. I asked around and I kept hearing one name over and over. I am thrilled with her. She is cutting edge on this disease, very cognizant of every risk of the medications, AND gave me two months free samples (with more to come) of my extremely pricey Forteo medication. She is at a large university research hospital, which helps.
Thanks MoWC. I hope I can find some one like your doctor. I have so many questions!
The National Osteoporosis Foundation has a good message forum. There is a ton of information and some very helpful posters. As with any message forum (especially medial ones) you have to weed through some stuff that you aren’t going to care about and hear about side effects that probably really didn’t happen…you know what I’m saying…but you can search the forum and a lot of questions will be answered.
I really would ask around about doctors. Maybe even search that NOF forum and see if there is someone in your city who is posting.
Gosh primary care should be able to handle osteoporosis!
I saw a rheumatologist but I also have arthritis.
Now I just see the doc that is connected to what ever body part is most bothersome.
I see an endocrinologist, who is wonderful. @blankmind, where do you live?
VeryHappy, I’m in S.CA (orange county).
I went to endocrinologist. She was superb.
Nerdyparent- that is absolutely incorrect. Trust me on his one.
I hope to God this is something I never have to deal with; I watched my mom suffer from RA for many years, and it was intimated that all the years of taking steroids on and off likely contributed to her eventual congestive heart failure. So I worry about RA - so far all three of my brothers have had gout episodes, but no RA yet. That being said, whenever I thought of osteoporosis, I always assumed orthopedic because it deals with bones. But I’m learning here that that’s not the case.
I do have an endocrine surgeon I see every year because I only have half of my thyroid; he runs blood work and does an ultrasound on my thyroid. And I don’t, and hopefully won’t have to have, have a rheumatologist. That being said, it’s my GYN who does my bone scans, and prescribes the hormones I take since my hysterectomy. But I do know after my hysterectomy, my endocrine surgeon became very interested in how my hormones are being handled. So I guess it would make sense to see an endocrinologist about these things, but it just has never occurred to me.
So… why not an orthopedist? Is it because most of them focus on procedures? If you have osteopenia/osteoporosis, and break a bone, do you go see your endocrinologist, or orthopedist?
It’s because it’s the hormones that change that osteoporosis occurs. If you had a break, you’d need an orthopedist, but to make sure your bones stay strong, you want an endocrinologist.
My gyn prescribed Actonel for me and didn’t know that one should stop it after about five years. He had me on it for 10, with no break.
You can see a rheumatologist or endocrinologist. Osteoporosis borders on both specialties.My H who is a doc sees his rheumatologist and he finished his 2 years of Forteo (a hormone) 2 years ago. His rheumatologist is extremely well-known and brilliant.
I would ask your regular primary care doc to see who he recommends.
I see an endocrinologist.
Yes, that is a major cause of osteoporosis, but there are many others as well.
Yep, I had osteoporosis for about five yrs before I started menopause.
However, my numbers are now better and I just have osteopenia.
Without meds, I just changed my diet.
Stopped eating wheat & started taking supplements.
Well, my bone density went up between Oct. 2012 and Dec. 2014, but I attribute it to weight bearing exercises since I have not really changed my diet or supplements during that time. In fact, until I got my estrogen levels back up to a sustainable level in the last six weeks or so with a hormone patch, I was seriously estrogen deficient from April 2014 until last December, so even during that time period, my bones responded well to exercise.
But I realize exercise does not work for everyone.
Yeah, I was already super active, working outside everyday in all weather.
I was quite surprised to be diagnosed, but I had other related issues.
I think I had more estrogen than progesterone though.
I probably should have seen sn endocrinologist, but my GP gave me a referral to an rheumatolgist.
emeraldkity & teriwtt, those are the kinds of questions I have. I’ve read that it’s important to find out the cause of bone loss, and I would really like to explore that before taking drugs. At the same time, I don’t know how to judge if my osteoporosis is so serious that I should immediately start the drugs and then start looking for the causes.
@nerdyparent, deciding about osteoporosis treatment is kind of complicated. I got a phone message from my dr telling me that my bone scan results were really bad, and that they had already sent a rx for Fosamax to my pharmacy, and I should just go pick it up and take it for two years and then come back. When I called back to ask some questions and see if I could discuss other options, I was told that Fosamax is the first line of defense that most insurance companies will pay for, so that’s what they recommend, and that’s all they could do for me. It’s not that they don’t understand my wanting to discuss other options, it’s just that their office is not really able to offer that.
Oh, and by the way, I asked for my actual BMD and T-Scores, which they gave me over the phone, and only one of the scores is actually osteoporolic.