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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Deborah Copaken

At 58, I have the spine of an 80-year-old. Navigating osteoporosis has been difficult and expensive

An MRI of a compression fracture of lumbar vertebrae.
Without intervention, osteoporotic bones simply deteriorate and grow increasingly more brittle with age. Photograph: BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

On 16 June 2023, I got my first Dexa scan. I was 57. Three hours later, a rogue driver plowed his car into mine and shattered my wrist in three places.

Fifty-seven is relatively young for a Dexa – or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry – scan, which measures bone density, or the amount of calcium and minerals in your bones. The CDC recommends them for women 65 and over, but while interviewing Joanna Strober, CEO of Midi Health, a virtual care clinic for those in perimenopause and menopause, she had urged me to get one sooner. Strober had become alarmed by how many of their fiftysomething patients were finding that they had the bones of an octogenarian.

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