Summary
Menopausal osteoporosis has many consequences for women over 50. Its complications incur high treatment costs both for society and the patients themselves. Collection of the epidemiological data required for a cost analysis of menopause-related osteoporosis is not easy, but we have calculated the direct (i.e. purely medical) costs as follows: — hip fractures: approximate number per annum in women over 50: 55,000, minimum hospital costs (treatment and rehabilitation): 3.5 bn FF; — forearm fractures: approximate number per annum: 35,000, cost of out-patient treatment: 200 m FF; — vertebral fractures: common, but generally unrecorded: estimated number 40,000–65,000 cost: unevaluated. The relative benefit of hormone therapy versus nontreatment may be used to calculate the cost of osteoporosis due to non treated menopause. In France, where currently only 5% women over 50 are treated, this cost is 2.2 bn FF. If 50% of women were treated, the savings from hormone therapy (in terms of osteoporosis treatment costs) could be 1.2 bn FF, a figure which must be weighed against a cost analysis of oestrogen therapy.
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Levy, E. Cost analysis of osteoporosis related to untreated menopause. Clin Rheumatol 8 (Suppl 2), 76–82 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207239
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207239