Introduction

If you have osteoporosis, your bones are weak and can break easily. More women than men get this condition. If you break a bone in your spine, hip, or wrist after going through the menopause, osteoporosis is the most likely cause.

Osteoporosis can have serious effects on your health and your life. But there are some good treatments that slow down the disease and help stop you breaking bones. There are also treatments that lower your chances of getting osteoporosis if you are especially likely to get it.

We've brought together the best research about osteoporosis and weighed up the evidence about how to treat it and how to prevent it. You can use our information to talk to your doctor and decide which treatments are best for you.

If you have osteoporosis, your bones are thinner and weaker than normal. That means they can break after only a small bump or fall.

You can't see from the outside that your bones are getting thin and weak. Most people only find out they have osteoporosis when they break a bone after a small fall or bump.

Osteoporosis is very common in later life. The older you are, the more likely you are to get it. This is because your bones get thinner as you age. And women are more likely to get it than men. This is because the changes in your hormones at the menopause speed up the thinning.

There isn't any cure for osteoporosis. But there are good treatments that can slow down the disease and help stop you getting broken bones.

Key points for people with osteoporosis

• Osteoporosis is the most common cause of broken bones in women who have been through the menopause.

• This condition takes years to develop. You don't get any symptoms until you break a bone.

• Osteoporosis is serious. Broken bones hurt and can make it hard for you to live on your own.

• There isn't any cure for osteoporosis. But you can get treatments to slow down the disease and lower your chances of breaking a bone.

• You can also do some things on your own to avoid getting broken bones.

Your bones and how they are made

To understand osteoporosis and how it is treated, it may help to know a bit about how your body makes your bones.

Your bones have two main parts.^[1]

• The inside part looks like a honeycomb. This is sometimes called spongy bone. Doctors call it trabecular bone. It is filled with blood vessels and bone marrow, where your blood cells are made.

• The outside part is hard. It's made of calcium and other substances. This is sometimes called compact bone. Doctors call it cortical bone. This hard outside protects the spongy inside.