postmenopausal

Who's at Risk? Postmenopausal women are at highest risk for menopause because their bodies produce less estrogen, a hormone that protects bones. Osteoporosis in men is becoming more common, however. Other Risk Factors Include: Broken bone from a minor injury Age greater than 65 years Low body weight Family history of bone fractures Cigarette smoking Sedentary Read more...

Vitamin D may be very important for postmenopausal women seeking to avoid hip fractures, so make sure to get outside in the sun and eat well. Scientists at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital studied the vitamin D levels of postmenopausal women admitted with hip fractures versus those admitted for elective joint replacement surgery. The subjects that were admitted with hip fractures Read more...

Writing in The Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at Yale University who looked at 46 postmenopausal women treated with either estrogen or a placebo found that "estrogen in a traditionally prescribed therapeutic dose produces significant alterations in brain activation patterns [in specific brain regions] in postmenopausal women as they perform working memory Read more...

By Michael O'Reilly, M.D. ThirdAge Women's Health Expert Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has suffered a highly publicized setback. The Women's Health Initiative study, which evaluated combined estrogen and progestin use in postmenopausal women, was halted after the study's safety monitoring board concluded that the risks of combined HRT use outweighed its benefits. Specifically, the Read more...