Michelle

Jun 21 · Posted

Hello wise ladies. I got my DEXA results back last month and it was the wake-up call I didn't know I needed, if I'm honest. Not terrible but not where I'd want to be. I've been reading about calcium and vitamin D from food rather than just supplements and I'm trying to work out what I actually eat regularly versus what I just think I eat. I'm also wondering whether to ask my GP about strength training referrals because I've seen it mentioned a few times on here. Did anyone bring their DEXA results to a GP appointment and find it useful? I want to go in with the right questions rather than just nodding along x

Jun 19 · Replied

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Thank you J.S., and everyone who replied. This is exactly why I posted. Reading these has made me feel much less ridiculous, and I am adding a few notes before my next appointment.

Jun 19 · Posted

Right so I got my DEXA results back last week and I've been sitting with them ever since trying to work out how I feel. Osteopenia. Not osteoporosis, the GP was keen to point out. But also not fine. And I think I needed to hear something concrete because I've been vaguely worrying about my bones for about two years and doing absolutely nothing about it. I'm 57, been postmenopausal since 53, on HRT the whole time. I genuinely thought that meant I was sorted on the bone front. Apparently it's more complicated than that, which my GP did explain but I'm not sure I fully took in at the time. So now I've got a list of questions for my next appointment. Things like: what does this score actually mean for fracture risk over the next decade, when do I need another scan, is my current HRT doing what we hoped, and is there anything else I should be doing alongside it. Meanwhile I've started walking every day. Not dramatically far. Just actually doing it instead of meaning to. And I've been thinking about food differently since the scan, more calcium-rich stuff, sardines, fortified oat milk, cheese (genuinely delighted that cheese is on the right side of this), and trying to get outside for the vitamin D even when it's grim out. I don't know. It's not a crisis. But the scan made it real in a way that the vague worry never did. Anyone else had a DEXA that kind of woke them up a bit? x

Jun 12 · Replied

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Thank you Tamsin, and everyone who replied. This is exactly why I posted. Reading these has made me feel much less ridiculous, and I am adding a few notes before my next appointment.

Jun 12 · Posted

So I got my DEXA results back last week and honestly it was the kick up the backside I needed. Not terrible, not great. The radiographer said something like "this is common at your age" and I smiled and nodded but inside I was thinking, right, no, I'm not just accepting that. I've been doing a lot of reading since and I've written down a proper list of questions for my GP. Things like: what does this score actually mean for fracture risk, what should I be monitoring going forward, how often do I need another scan, and whether there's anything specific I should be doing given I've been on HRT for a few years now. I want actual answers, not a leaflet. Food-wise I've been quietly paying more attention to what I'm eating. Not obsessively, just noticing. I had no idea how much calcium I wasn't getting until I started looking. Fortified oat milk, a bit of cheese here and there, some tinned sardines (which I'm learning to not hate). Vitamin D is trickier because we live in England and the sun is, well, the sun. I've been getting outside most days though, proper walks rather than just nipping to the car. Started doing about 30 minutes most mornings and I can already feel it's doing something for my head if nothing else. Anyone else had a DEXA and felt like it reframed everything a bit? Like suddenly bone health went from abstract future worry to actual present thing I need to care about now? That's where I am. 57 and taking it seriously. Finally. x

Jun 8 · Posted

PSA: ask your GP about a DEXA scan if bone health is on your radar. I hadn't thought to ask until someone mentioned it here. Wish I'd known sooner. x

Jun 6 · Replied

Community post

Thank you J.S., and everyone who replied. This is exactly why I posted. Reading these has made me feel much less ridiculous, and I am adding a few notes before my next appointment.

Jun 6 · Posted

Right, this is a bit of a ramble and only loosely related to the usual things we talk about, so bear with me. I had a DEXA scan a few months ago, which I'd been asking my GP about for a while if I'm honest. I wasn't in crisis or anything, I just had this nagging feeling that I'd been coasting on assumptions about my own health for years and I wanted some actual numbers to look at. My mum had a hip fracture in her late sixties and it changed everything for her, so it's always been somewhere in the back of my mind. Anyway, the results came back and they weren't terrible but they weren't brilliant either, and suddenly I found myself reading absolutely everything I could find about bone density and what happens post-menopause and calcium and vitamin D and weight-bearing exercise and honestly it's a lot. Like, a LOT. I went from mildly curious to completely obsessed in about four days. I've started making notes, which is new for me. I'm not naturally a notes person but I've got a little document going now with questions for my next GP appointment. Things like what the numbers actually mean for someone my age, whether I should be thinking about this differently given I've been on HRT for a while, what the follow-up timeline usually looks like. I don't want to go in there and just nod along, I want to actually understand what I'm looking at. On the more practical side I've been thinking a lot about what I'm eating, not in a restrictive way but more like, am I actually getting enough of the things that matter? I've started being more deliberate about dairy and green veg and I've been reading about how vitamin D absorption works in winter which, living in England, is obviously a joy. I've been taking a supplement for ages but I realised I had no idea whether the timing or the dose I'd picked off a shelf years ago was even sensible, so that's another thing on the list to actually ask someone qualified rather than just assuming. The strength training thing is where I feel most out of my depth. I started going to a class at my local leisure centre about six weeks ago and I am by some distance the least coordinated person there. There's a woman who must be at least 70 doing things with a barbell that make me feel personally embarrassed. But I keep going because I genuinely believe it matters and because my knees hurt less on the days after I go, which I wasn't expecting. I've got a granddaughter who's just turned two and she wants to be picked up approximately nine hundred times a day when I see her, and I want to still be able to do that when she's five. That's basically my entire motivation summed up. Anyone else gone through the bone health spiral? Would love to know what questions you found useful to ask x