In response to Minnie and Keri, Yes, hyperprolactinemia can cause premature bone loss. I had osteopenia at 37 -- a few points shy of osteoporosis. My mid 60-'s ish male ENDO kept telling me to take Fosamax. Medical research geek that I am (managed to choose a career where somebody pays me for this), I looked for studies of the bisphosphonates in pre-menopausal women. Of course, there are non (just posted in a message on another thread -- cannot remember which thread now!!). You make bone mass until mid 20's, but that is if hormones are normal. I had expressive galactorrhea (a greenish-brownish breast discharge) before I was 25, and was not diagnosed with hyperprolactinema until 31. So, with many years of hypoestrogen state (low estrogen), not building bone so much as losing it. Keri, the prolactin-calcium relation is all about estrogen. Prolactin lowers estrogen, which allows for bone loss. The good news for you is that pregnancy is protective, as is lactation (oddly enough, because we all know what happens to prolactin levels in order to allow for lactation!). Keep up with the calcium - 1600 mg/day in split doses -- and weight bearing exercise. I'm assuming that having two young children gives you all the weight-bearing exercise you can handle :-). Do NOT take estrogen, though, even though it seems logical that replacing the estrogen would counteract the bone loss, that has only been proven in POST menopausal women. Studies of PRE-menopausal women, comparing those who ever versus never took the pill found that use of estrogen-contanining oral contraceptives was associated with LOWER bone-mineral density. The biggest challenge for us is to be sure that even when doctors are using the "evidence base", that they remember that we are usually NOT the population in which that evidence was generated. So far, I have NEVER been treated by a doc, of ANY specialty, who remembered this without me saying so -- and sometimes it meant that I was outright refusing to do what they recommended until they took the time to listen to what I was saying and read the studies I'd read. When I think of how few people are comfortable doing this -- challenging an MD -- it scares me to think of what they must go through. Many good examples of that on this board!! |
