ADFR therapy in the prevention of bone loss after menopause

Estrogens retard bone loss after menopause and constitute the most logical therapy for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Estrogens are contraindicated in some circumstances and some postmenopausal women are unwilling to accept them. We have used ADFR therapy as an alternative in the prevention of postmenopausal bone loss. One hundred women in the early postmenopausal period (6-24 months since the last menses) were introduced into the study. 50 were treated with placebo and 50 were treated with ADFR therapy (phosphorus 1.5 gr/day during 3 days, followed by SCT 100 UI/day during 10 days and calcium 1 gr/day). After 77 days without any therapy we repeated the cycles every 3 months. Bone mass was evaluated at the beginning and at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months by dualphoton absorptionmetry lumbar spine. In the control group, the mean spinal BMD decreased 7.31% after 12 months and 6.16% after 18 months (p greater than 0.05). The ADFR group only had a mean spinal BMD decrease of 3.79% and 1.1% after 12 and 18 months respectively (NS). Bone loss was greater in control than in ADFR group after 12 and 18 months (p less than 0.05 at both times). We conclude that phosphorus and calcitonin like ADFR therapy may be a useful alternative to estrogen for the prevention of accelerated bone loss after menopause.