Updated: 02-06-2025
What Are the Symptoms of Osteoporosis?
For several reasons, your body starts making too little bone, or you start losing bone.
This results in a condition known as osteoporosis.
Thus, osteoporosis is a bone disease.
Due to this disease, the bones become fragile, weak and can break even due to minor fall.
In highly severe cases, the simple actions like sneezing forcefully or mere bumping into the furniture can lead to fracture or breakage of bone.
Identification of osteoporosis
The complete meaning of osteoporosis is porous bone.
A healthy bone looks like a honeycomb when observed under the microscope.
However, if you are suffering from osteoporosis, the spaces and the holes within the honeycomb seem quite large, which you can see in a healthy bone.
This shows that your bone has lost mass or density, and the structure has become abnormal.
The lesser the density of the bones, the weaker they become, thereby increasing the chances of bone breakage and fracture and the symptoms of osteoporosis.
Types of Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is of different types and occurs in both men and women.
However, certain races, especially white women, are more at risk of acquiring this disease.
What is more concerning is that lately, the occurrence of juvenile osteoporosis has increased enormously.
Juvenile Osteoporosis
It is difficult to define this condition in children.
The best way to detect it is to carry out bone density scanning so that the right detection is possible.
Although a clear diagnosis is still not possible through this scanning, as in adults, proof of a fragile skeleton leads to a final diagnosis of juvenile osteoporosis.
The two kinds of juvenile osteoporosis are
- Secondary
- Idiopathic
Secondary osteoporosis is the most common type of juvenile osteoporosis and is usually caused by certain medical conditions.
The diseases that can cause this condition include
- Diabetes
- Juvenile arthritis
- Leukemia
- Cystic fibrosis
- Celiac disease
- Homocystinuria (a genetic metabolic disorder)
- Osteogenesis imperfecta (“brittle bone disease”)
- Hyperthyroidism
- Cushing’s syndrome
- Hyperparathyroidism
- Malabsorption syndromes
- Kidney disease
- Anorexia nervosa
Osteoporosis Facts: Men and Women
- Both men and women tend to suffer from osteoporosis; however, the number of women suffering from this disease is comparatively higher.
- This is because during their fifth decade, women experience more bone loss than men do
- Hence, by the time both are in their sixties, both have lost the bone at the same rate; the bone loss is much more in women.
Risk of Osteoporosis in Women
- The risk of osteoporosis in women increases after menopause.
- The symptoms of osteoporosis are especially more common in the case of Asian and white women and in women who have small and thin frames.
- Even teenage girls with a thin frame who engage in excessive exercise and do not have regular menses are at risk of acquiring osteoporosis, and such a condition is known as amenorrhoea.
- This is because irregular menses or complete loss of menstrual periods is due to a decrease in the level of oestrogen, which can ultimately lead to osteoporosis.
- A low-calcium diet devoid of bone-boosting nutrients can also lead to osteoporosis in women, especially in girls who restrict eating to lose weight.
- Athletes and gymnasts who try to keep up a low body weight to perform and score better in the tournaments are also at risk of acquiring this disease.
Note: Around 30 percent of ballet dancers have been found to suffer from stress fractures because of low body weight and eating disorders.
Risk of Osteoporosis in Men
- Men, although less at risk of acquiring osteoporosis than women, still develop this condition.
- Men are at more risk of developing this condition after the age of 70, 5 to 10 years later than women.
- Even though there is no steady drop in hormone levels in men, just like in women after menopause, there is a significant reduction in testosterone as men get older.
- Like oestrogen in women, testosterone offers protection to the bones in the male body.
Symptoms of Osteoporosis
The onset of osteoporosis is silent, and the symptoms of osteoporosis are almost unnoticeable unless you have to face a fracture.
Only when the disease aggravates to an advanced stage do you feel the pain or start noticing common symptoms such as loss of height.
This is the time when you should immediately contact your doctor.
Some of the common symptoms include
Fracture: More often, repeated fractures could be a sign of fragile bones caused by severe osteoporosis.
These fractures can occur even due to a minor fall or step off from a curb or even due to a strong cough or sneeze.
Neck or Back Pain: Compression fractures in the spine can be due to osteoporosis.
The patient has to bear excruciating pain in this condition as the collapsed vertebrae keep on pinching the nerves, and hence, the pain keeps radiating from the spinal cord.
The symptoms of the pain can range from minor to severe.
Losing Height: The patient can lose his height due to spinal compression fractures, which are one of the most noticeable and common symptoms of osteoporosis.
Stopped Posture
Due to the compression in the vertebrae, the upper back may also curve slightly, giving a stooped appearance.
This condition is termed kyphosis or dowager’s hump.
This condition leads to severe pain in the neck and back and even affects breathing as extra pressure is put on the airway.
Also Read: Top 5 Amazing Health Benefits of Oats
Symptoms of Emergency Osteoporosis
Symptoms of osteoporosis in an emergency can cause extreme discomfort and pain and warrant an emergency room trip.
If you are suffering from extreme pain, particularly in the wrist, hip, neck, or back, you must contact your carer immediately for an evaluation of your bones and possible treatment.
What are the consequences of osteoporosis?
- Bone fractures caused by osteoporosis are highly painful, and the patient loses workdays and quality of life, which can lead to disability.
- Around 30 percent of the patients suffering from this disease suffer from a hip fracture that requires long-term care and nursing.
- In elderly patients, there are chances of the development of pneumonia and blood clots in the veins of the lower legs
- 20 percent of women suffering from hip fractures due to osteoporosis die directly or indirectly due to this condition.
- Patients suffering from spine fractures as a result of osteoporosis are always at risk of suffering similar fractures again in the future.
- Around 20 percent of the postmenopausal women with vertebral fractures who experienced them earlier are at risk of suffering from a bone fracture in the coming years.
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