[What patients need to know about the risk of bone fracture and its prevention]

Post-menopausal osteoporosis is one of the classic complications of prolonged estrogen deficiency associated with menopause. It is defined as a state of the skeleton characterized by decreased bone strength with an increased risk of fracture. The natural history of osteoporosis and, in particular, the rapid increase in fracture recurrence after a first major fracture should justify a priori an approach for early detection of women at higher risk from the early postmenopausal phase. It is more of a chronic disease that requires support in the long term, in the absence of a truly curative treatment. Indeed, currently available therapies can at best reduce the incidence of fractures by about 50%, especially at the vertebral site, but do not cancel the disease. Moreover, duration of treatment is currently recommended for 5 to 10 years, which does not allow to consider that a single molecule could be taken "for the whole life". The fracture risk assessment based on the combination of densitometric measurement by DXA and the search for clinical risk factors is a prerequisite to any therapy. The first choice of treatment is especially important for a relatively young woman with high fracture risk. In early menopause (generally within the first decade of post-menopausal) and in the absence of contraindication, menopausal hormone therapy should remain the preferred option for first-line whenever possible. Raloxifene is an interesting alternative, due to its mechanisms of action and multiplicity of targets with, in particular, its preventive effect on the risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. It is only when there are contraindications to one or the other of these two molecules, that other osteoporosis treatments can be discussed. They should nevertheless be considered only in women whose 10-year-fracture risk is significantly increased. Indeed, it is mainly in this high risk of fracture, particularly because of an age greater than 65 years and a history of vertebral fracture, that their antifracture efficacy has been validated. In addition, it is mostly beyond this age that the question of the prevention of hip fracture has to be considered.