Why does hysterectomy cause osteoporosis

What are the risks of ET? Using ET may increase your risk of: footnote 4 Stroke. Blood clots. You should not take ET if: You have unexplained vaginal bleeding. You have liver disease or other problems with your liver. You have breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, or blood clots or have had a stroke.

What other treatment might you try instead of ET? Instead of ET, you might try other prescription medicines for menopause symptoms. Antidepressant medicines can lower the number of hot flashes you have. And they can make hot flashes less severe when you do have them. Some women have side effects such as headaches, an upset stomach, and problems sleeping. It's not clear how safe this medicine is if it's taken for a long time. Clonidine , a blood pressure medicine, may relieve hot flashes for some women.

But studies have not shown that clonidine makes hot flashes less severe or less frequent. Some women have side effects related to low blood pressure. Gabapentin Neurontin , an antiseizure medicine, may lower the number of hot flashes each day and the intensity of hot flashes. Possible side effects include sleepiness, dizziness, and swelling.

You might also try dietary soy to manage hot flashes. You might also try other medicines to prevent bone thinning. Why might your doctor recommend ET after hysterectomy and oophorectomy? Your doctor might recommend ET after hysterectomy and oophorectomy if: You are in your 20s, 30s, or 40s. You need treatment to prevent early bone thinning and osteoporosis. Compare your options.

Wear a skin patch or gel. Use a vaginal ring, cream, or tablet. You use ET until the age of menopause around You have a lower risk of osteoporosis. You have fewer hot flashes. And the ones you do have may not be that bad. ET also helps decrease other menopause symptoms, such as vaginal dryness, sleep problems, and moodiness related to hormone changes.

ET slightly increases your risk of stroke, and blood clots. Side effects of ET may include breast tenderness, bloating, and upset stomach. ET may increase your risk of gallstones. You should not use ET if: You have unexplained vaginal bleeding. You have breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or uterine cancer. Don't take ET Don't take ET You can try other prescription medicines to help with early menopause symptoms, such as antidepressants, clonidine, or gabapentin Neurontin.

You can try dietary soy or black cohosh for hot flashes. You can take vitamin D supplements, eat foods that are rich in calcium, and do weight-bearing exercises to try to prevent bone thinning, or you can try other prescription medicines. You may be able to lower your risk of osteoporosis without ET. You avoid the risks of ET. You avoid the costs of ET. If other treatments don't work, you can try ET later. Other prescription medicines have side effects, such as: Headaches, upset stomach, and problems sleeping antidepressants.

Problems linked to low blood pressure clonidine. Sleepiness, dizziness, and swelling gabapentin. You may be at risk for liver problems if you use black cohosh. You may be at risk for bone thinning and osteoporosis because of the loss of estrogen.

Your menopause symptoms may be hard to live with. Personal stories about deciding to use estrogen therapy These stories are based on information gathered from health professionals and consumers. What matters most to you? I think I can handle my menopause symptoms on my own. I feel that the benefits of ET are worth the risks. I'm very worried about the risks of ET.

I think I can reduce my risk for thinning bones without ET. The thought of using ET for many years doesn't bother me. I'm not sure I want to take any medicine for many years. My other important reasons: My other important reasons:. Where are you leaning now? What else do you need to make your decision?

Check the facts. Yes You're right. No Sorry, that's not right. ET lowers your risk. I'm not sure It may help to go back and read "Get the Facts. Yes Sorry, that's not right. Other prescription medicines may ease menopause symptoms and prevent osteoporosis. And you may prevent bone thinning if you take vitamin D supplements, eat foods that are rich in calcium, and do weight-bearing exercises. No You're right. Taking ET does have risks, including a slight risk of stroke and blood clots.

But for most women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, the benefits of ET are stronger than these risks. Taking ET does have risks, including a slight risk of stroke and blood clots.. Other medical risk factors Medical factors that significantly increase the risk of people developing osteoporosis are' premature menopause before the age of 45 , steroid therapy, previous fragility fractures, low body weight and amenorrhoea absence of menstrual period before the menopause.

Lifestyle Lifestyle factors include diet calcium and vitamin D deficiency , drinking alcohol more than 3 units per day ; smoking and immobility physical inactivity. She remembers her mother breaking bones and in later life becoming quite bent and losing height View full profile. It started off. I saw my mother in a reflection. My mother died many years ago. I suddenly saw the reflection of myself in, in a shop window and it was me and I was quite bent. And I'd realised that I was getting bent.

She did break her arm and she did have a plate put in, screws because I looked. I was the eldest of the four of us. And I was 13 at the time and I looked after the household while she was in hospital. In many cases there were one or more risk factors other than heredity. But she thinks that her coeliac disease, undiagnosed for many years, was the main factor in her osteoporosis.

She said that it was an unfortunate coincidence the fact that she was pregnant at the time. Coeliac disease can lead to malabsorption of nutrients, including calcium, and it had affected a few of the women we talked to. Michelle listed three risk factors; heredity, coeliac disease and an anti-oestrogen treatment for Tumours that invaded the bowel, tumours that invaded the bladder and I was put on a very high powered anti-oestrogen drugs.

So in about the senior professor of obstetrics and gynaecology reassessed my whole case because by then I was judged to be disease free and then what do you what are how do you manage the remaining [coughs] risk factors and what other risk factors have to be assessed? So I was sent to him for that. And there was also some reconstructive surgery question mark of that and he was going to send me to London to see somebody for that. So he reassessed my whole health and among the various risk factors looking at, you know, is your breast cancer risk better or worse?

And what do you have to do about your nutrition? And what about sexuality? And then the nutritional compromise with coeliac I did take that seriously. And so that kind of got my attention. Several women thought an early menopause after hysterectomy had triggered their osteoporosis. Hysterectomy alone is not a big risk factor if ovaries are conserved. The average age of menopause is brought forward but much more relevant is whether ovaries are removed.

It is important for women after hysterectomy to have ovarian function measured especially if they have menopausal symptoms. Lack of oestrogen has an effect on bone density and if oestrogen deficiency is found it should be replaced by hormone replacement therapy HRT.

A couple of women were put on HRT after surgery but one did not receive the hormone treatment until years later. Other women, who had an early menopauses not due to a hysterectomy, were not concerned at all about having an early menopause.

At the time they were more than glad to see an end to their periods. It was only after diagnosis that they learnt that it is a big risk factor for osteoporosis. Emma had a hysterectomy around and was put on HRT in after complaining of severe And I was fine after that.

I had no problems, nothing. But in I had started having severe headaches. And headaches were so bad that I could not cope at all. And then I had a sort of… I had a heart problem type thing… that I was I was going to have a heart attack. So we started looking into it whether I had any problems.

And I think my GP under, understood me immediately what is the problem. And suddenly she said I because of my hysterectomy I must be suffering from some sort of lack of hormones. And she started, she wanted me to put me on a hormone treatment, which we started on hormone treatment in the beginning.

Thyroxine replacement therapy is not bad for bone health unless an inappropriate dose is used, for example too high. This treatment can be monitored with thyroid function tests. A few of the women we talked to had been diagnosed before or soon after the diagnosis of osteoporosis with thyroid disease. Two were on medication but one decided to stop it after she developed breathing difficulties.

Carol's doctor made her aware that thyroxine; the medication used to treat her thyroid problem is not good for her bones. But she feels much better on it. And I feel a lot better. And I was very constipated. And another doctor in the surgery had been following up this constipation over a period. And I had all sorts of tests and whatever.

And it turned out to be this under active thyroid. So yeah I feel a lot better since then. So she agreed to put me on that. Osteoporosis is commonly viewed as affecting women, primarily after the menopause, but it can also affect men. Hysterectomy is commonly performed in middle-aged women to treat symptoms of pain or bleeding caused by conditions, such as fibroids, endometriosis, or uterine prolapsed, or cysts.

Women having hysterectomies for these benign conditions may also have their ovaries removed at the same time, believing that it will reduce cancer risk, according to Visvanathan. Regardless of the reason for such surgery, however, the procedure has adverse effects, the Hopkins researchers say. Levels of estrogens and related hormones that are normally produced by the ovaries fall steeply after oophorectomy, bringing on menopause abruptly in women who are not yet postmenopausal.

Estrogens help protect the body from aging and age-related disease, and physicians and epidemiologists over the past two decades have linked their premature loss to increased risks of parkinsonism, dementia, arthritis, and the brittle-bone condition known as osteoporosis.

The information was gathered as part of a U. Most had intact ovaries; of the women who had oophorectomy, about half had surgery before age McCarthy found that women who had both ovaries removed before age 45 had on average three percent lower bone mineral density than women with intact ovaries.

McCarthy examined arthritis risk, too, and found that 48 percent of women who had oophorectomies before age 45 reported an arthritis diagnosis, compared with only 32 percent for those with intact ovaries. When McCarthy excluded women who had taken hormone replacement therapy HRT , which normally counters the effects of lost ovarian hormones, these added risks became even higher. Women with cancer and other medical conditions that necessitate oophorectomy, and women with specific genetic mutations that bring extremely high ovarian cancer risk, should still get their ovaries removed, she adds.