A bone to pick

[tn_tiger]

I had three broken bones before I got out of high school;  and I think I recall being told that TS girls were a little more predisposed to brittle bones.    I know I even had a bone age study done at one point.

Can anyone confirm or deny this, or point me to some information?

Comments

[eponine_b]

Yes, TS women are more likely to develop osteoporosis (brittle bones) because of the lack of oestrogen in our bodies. There's a little bit of blurb on the UK TS Society Website here headed Osteoporosis and Hormone Replacement Therapy and you can also find out more about osteoporosis at this website.

The bone age thing wouldn't have indicated whether you had brittle bones or not, it tells doctors how far along the growth process your bones are. As a child grows into an adolescent and then into an adult, the bones knit together and change and a bone age tells the doctors what stage you are at and they can interpret that to predict your final height and so on.

To find out whether you have brittle bones or not, you'd need to have a bone density scan (often called a DEXA scan). It's a bit like an X-Ray except they tend to look at just your lower spine and hip bones. I've had a couple done and the results are pretty easy to understand although the doctor will explain it to you and talk you through what happens next. It turned out from my scans that I have low bone density (which is called osteopenia) in my spine which is almost like the stage before osteoporosis. I've started doing a bit more low impact excerise and increasing my Calcium and Vitamin D intake and it's helped a little as my bone density increased slightly over the space of a year so it's something you can take action on and improve.