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Osteoporosis in Men

Peter R. Ebeling, M.D.

A 65-year-old asymptomatic man is concerned about his risk of osteoporosis. His mother died after a hip fracture at 74 years of age. The patient has no history of fractures but has lost 3 inches in height; he does not smoke and has never taken corticosteroids. He drinks two glasses of beer per day. His body-mass index is 25. Measurements of bone mineral density are consistent with osteoporosis. What should you recommend?

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Funding and Disclosures

Supported by grants from the University of Melbourne and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

Dr. Ebeling reports receiving consulting fees from Merck, Amgen, and GlaxoSmithKline, lecture fees from Merck and Eli Lilly, and research funding from Novartis, Amgen, and GlaxoSmithKline. No other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

An audio version of this article is available at www.nejm.org.

I thank Drs. Anjali Haikerwal and Robin Daly for their technical assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.

Author Affiliations

From the Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital/Western Hospital, and the Department of Endocrinology, University of Melbourne, Western Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Ebeling at the Department of Medicine (RMH/WH), Western Hospital, Gordon St., Footscray 3011, Victoria, Australia, or at [email protected].

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