[Postmenopausal osteoporosis: when is it necessary to perform laboratory testing? Which testing strategy?]

Causes of secondary osteoporosis represent 10 to 20% of all postmenopausal osteoporosis causes. Accordingly, laboratory testing needs to be performed to exclude those conditions before any therapeutic strategy. It is particularly the case in women with a recent fragility fracture or in otherwise healthy women with unexplained low bone mineral density. While there is no consensus for a simple testing strategy, evaluation of serum and urine calcium, phosphate, creatinine with 25-hydroxyvitamin D and complete blood count including erythrocyte sedimentation rate and possibly protein electrophoresis and serum thyroid-stimulating hormone could be recommended.