Is Osteoporosis More Common in Females Than Males?
Of the 10 million Americans who have osteoporosis, about 8 million, or 80%, are women.
Osteoporosis is bone disease that causes your bones to become weak and break easily. (mayo clinic)
Although osteoporosis can affect both men and women, it is more common in women, due to a decrease in bone density and a higher tendency for women's bones to become fragile with age. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, 200 million women worldwide have osteoporosis, which makes osteoporosis an even greater burden for women of all ages.
Osteoporosis causes your bones to thin and weaken over time, making them more prone to fracture. It affects both men and women. This may also make no sense, but it's true: If you're a woman, you're certainly more at risk of developing osteoporosis than men.
Healthy Bones Define
Bones are constantly being built, broken down, and rebuilding in your body. When the body digests nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D and potassium, it creates bone mass. Exercises like walking or walking also help strengthen bones.
Bone strengthening usually continues until a person is in their mid-30s. Then the bone begins to lose its density. The hard minerals in the bones are replaced by empty tissue like a honeycomb.
The body typically breaks down bone and builds new tissue to replace it. This process of bone turnover is normal and healthy, on the other hand, as we age, humans don't form much new bone, which means that bone mass gradually begins to decrease over time. This process causes bones to become more porous and at risk of breaking. Studies show that men tend to have denser and stronger bones. Thus, although bone loss still occurs in middle-aged men, it is less likely to cause significant osteoporosis.
Women start out with decreased bone density than their male counterparts and women lose bone mass more quickly with age, which makes osteoporosis more common in some women. Between a long period of 20 and 80, ordinary white women lost 1/3 of their hip bone density, as opposed to only 1/4 of the bone density loss in men.
When Does Osteoporosis Usually Happen in Women?
For most women, the overall bone count reaches its peak between the ages of 20 and 35. It can also peak faster for some women, depending on the element of their threat to osteoporosis.
When the whole number of bones reached their peak, the current reversed. At some point, usually at the age of 35, girls start to lose bone density.
Bone loss rates increase rapidly in the 5 to 10 years after menopause. Then, over the course of a few years, bone breakdown occurs at a much higher rate than new bone formation. This is a procedure that ultimately leads to osteoporosis.
During this time, even if your bones are still strong enough to prevent osteoporosis and fractures and you have no osteoporosis symptoms to warn you about the disease, a bone density test can detect bone loss.
Estrogen and osteoporosis
In women, the reproductive hormone estrogen is also responsible for regulating and maintaining healthy bones. As menopause approaches, a woman's risk for osteoporosis increases as estrogen levels start to fluctuate, or decline. Women have a greater risk of developing osteoporosis if they experience frequent menstrual irregularities, have their ovaries removed, or are going through menopause.
What Causes Osteoporosis in Females?
Women typically have smaller and thinner bones than men.
Estrogen, the female hormone that protects bones, drops sharply when women reach menopause, which can lead to bone loss. This is why the risk of osteoporosis increases when a woman reaches menopause.
Osteoporosis and Estrogen
Estrogen is a hormone that plays a role in a woman's regenerative cycle. Meanwhile, the task of maintaining strong, healthy bones, in 2 people. During pre menopause, women have more estrogen than men, they will experience a sensational drop in estrogen production due to menopause, and will definitely experience bone loss and osteoporosis at that time.
Women are at greater risk of developing osteoporosis related to estrogen levels if they:
- Going through menopause, experiencing this at an early age has a much greater risk.
- The ovaries have been evacuated (at any age)
- Experiencing unpredictable or inconsistent periods, or starting to have longer-than-normal age intervals.
Women lose bone mass significantly more quickly in the years following menopause than they do at different times in their lives.
In contrast, records show that girls who have more estrogen than their peers, for example, girls who started menstrual cycles earlier than usual or who have used contraceptives containing estrogen, tend to have greater bone thickness.
In women, the reproductive hormone estrogen is also responsible for regulating and maintaining healthy bones. Approaching menopause, the risk of osteoporosis in women will increase because estrogen levels begin to fluctuate, or thin out. Women are at a greater risk of developing osteoporosis if they have regular menstrual irregularities, have their ovaries removed, or are going through menopause. Women who started taking tablets or various types of synthetic estrogens were also at higher risk of developing osteoporosis than their peers.
Why Osteoporosis is More Common in Women?
The reason why osteoporosis is so common in women is often due to the drop in estrogen levels after menopause. Estrogen is a hormone that helps modify bone density, and when levels drop, bones begin to break down more quickly than they can rebuild.
Osteoporosis and menopause
Postmenopausal women are most at risk of developing osteoporosis, because of the rapid loss of bone. Bone mass peaks in the mid-twenties and remains more or less stable until early menopause, occurring in women between the ages of 50 and 53 years in North America and Europe, and at the age of 42 years in Asia and Latin America.
African American Woman
5% of African American women over age 50 are estimated to have osteoporosis.
Another 35% are thought to have low bone mass, in which their bones weaken but do not develop osteoporosis.
Even among African-American women who have a risk element of osteoporosis, few are screened for the disease.
Approximately 70% of African Americans are lactose intolerant, which can make it difficult to get enough calcium.
Many African-American women don't get enough vitamin D, which can prevent your body from taking up calcium.
Latina Woman
10% of Latino women suffer from osteoporosis.
Half of all Latino girls over age 50 have low bone mass, which could potentially make their bones more brittle, but they don't have osteoporosis.
Many Latinos are lactose intolerant, so it can be difficult for them to get enough calcium.
Asian American women
It is estimated that 20% of Asian-American women aged 50 and over have osteoporosis.
More than 50% of Asian-American women aged 50 years and over are estimated to have low bone density, their bone capacity may weaken but do not develop osteoporosis.
About 90% of Asian-American adults are lactose intolerant, so it can be difficult to get enough calcium.
Caucasian Woman
20% of Caucasian women aged 50 years and over estimated to have osteoporosis.
Half of Caucasian women aged 50 years and over are estimated to have low bone mass, but even if their bone strength is getting weaker, they do not suffer from osteoporosis.
Between ages 20 and 80, Caucasian women lose 1/3 of the bone mineral density in their hips.
Approximately 15% of Caucasians are lactose intolerant, which can make it difficult for them to get enough calcium.
Osteoporosis may go undetected for many years.
After prevention, the next big factor is early diagnosis, which can help people with osteoporosis limit bone loss through treatment as soon as possible.
However, caution needs to be taken, because many sufferers of this disorder do not show symptoms in the early stages. Therefore, many professionals recommend regular bone density scans for women over 65, whose bones are lighter, thinner, and whose decreased estrogen levels make them more likely to develop the disease.
Summary
Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, it is very important for you to be screened for osteoporosis from the age of 50. Early detection of osteoporosis will allow you to develop a treatment plan with your healthcare provider, so you can maintain your bones, and avoid possible falls and fractures.
Many people consider osteoporosis, a situation characterized by loss of bone mass and density, to be a major health problem for older women. If you're male, you may also be able to breathe a sigh of relief or simply ignore it whenever osteoporosis occurs. It's not a disease you want to fear.
In fact, osteoporosis occurs more frequently in women. However, men can experience it, too.