[Bone and Men's Health. Male osteoporosis]

As compared with postmenopausal osteoporosis, male osteoporosis is not common ; approximately one third of the female osteoporosis in frequency, but is an increasingly recognized problem with associated fracture morbidity and mortality. As opposed to postmenopausal women, reduced bone formation is the predominant mechanism of age-related bone loss in men. Although both serum free testosterone and free estradiol levels decline with age in men, it has been proved that estrogen plays an important role in maintaining bone mass in men. For the most common osteoporosis therapies (bisphosphonates and PTH) the effects in men appear very similar to those in women.