ESTROGEN AND YOUR BONES

 

 

Dr Steven R. Goldstein is a leading Menopause Specialist in NYC who has helped thousands of women find relief from and cope with the symptoms of menopause. He also serves as the Co-Directory of Bone Densitometry and Body Composition at NYU Langone Medical Center and is an Osteoporosis Specialist in NYC where he combines his knowledge of menopause and bone density to help patients.

 It is important to remember that Menopause is not a disease, it is a stage of life that a woman will enter, during which the body stops producing estrogen. There are over 300 tissues in a woman’s body that rely on estrogen (a female hormone) so cholesterol levels, the heart, the brain, bones and more areas of the body are affected by Menopause. 

 There are 206 bones in your body. They give you support; they allow you to go about your daily activities, and they protect your vital organs. Bone marrow even manufactures new blood cells. Although we may think of bone as inert and unchanging, it is living tissue, and like all living tissue, its is constantly changing, breaking down old cells, and replacing them with new cells, resorbed as well as formed. Bone mass, which is the total amount of bone in the skeleton, is maintained in a delicate balance between the breakdown (resorption) of old bone and the formulation of new bone.

 Ninety-nine percent of the calcium in your body is stored in your bones. Calcium is vital to the body and bone. Estrogen plays a role in keeping blood calcium levels normal by aiding absorption of calcium from food as well as promoting the uptake of calcium from the blood into the bone. Therefore, after menopause, a woman’s body may lose bone faster than it can be replaced due to estrogen loss.

 Dr Goldstein, a Menopause Specialist in NYC notes that fifty percent of a woman’s bone loss occurs in the first three years following menopause. Some women lose one third of the bone mass in their spine in as little as six years after menopause. This bone loss defines osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteoporosis affects about eight million women in America.

 Dr Steven R. Goldstein, a Menopause Specialist in NYC , is a Certified Menopause Practitioner with the North American Menopause Society and a past President of the International Menopause Society as well as a past President of the North American Menopause society. In private practice for over 25 years in New York City, Dr Goldstein has successfully helped thousands of women cope with the symptoms of menopause, osteoporosis and osteopenia.