Can someone explain T-scores to me

[Hindess]

I will soon receive a Dexa scan results and I want to understand them.

[Sunseaandsand]

Hi my advice would be to speak to the professional who gives them to you.

Ask them any questions you have on this.

I am currently going into this myself as I want to make absolutely sure I get the correct answer.

[sweetsusie in reply to Sunseaandsand]

Please don't let the doctors talk you into taking those awful bone meds! You'll get a lot of really good advice on this site about what else you can do, if they diagnose you with osteoporosis....

[HeronNS]

The first thing to know is the t-score is going to be a negative number, so the larger the number looks, the lower the bone density (e.g. -2 is lower bone density than -1). The other thing to know is a score of -2.5 is the level at which some years ago a committee of the WHO decided osteoporosis would begin. This was a relatively arbitrary decision. Your doctor will explain if you ask, but they tend to have a very fixed idea, a sort of "one size fits all" attitude. For example, most people diagnosed with osteoporosis will tend to be smaller, lighter. This actually makes sense to me. You would not expect a slender person to even need the same bones as someone who is large. In fact different standards have been developed for different countries. No point comparing a slender person on the Indian subcontinent with a strapping Scandinavian or American, for example. So together with what your doctor tells you it's good to approach the whole subject with a degree of skepticism.

A DXA scan cannot tell you how strong or flexible your bones are. That can at the moment only be determined through a fairly invasive test which no doctor would prescribe and no patient would want. It's a rough and ready estimate of how your skeleton is doing compared with a healthy individual of 35.

If your DXA scan prompts your doctor to suggest you need medication it may be wise to ask to be tested for secondary causes of osteoporosis before agreeing to take any. You will also need to make sure your calcium and Vitamin D levels are good or medication will not work well.

And be aware there is plenty of evidence that so-called natural methods can indeed improve bone density scores in roughly the same time frame, or even better, than medication.

[Hindess in reply to HeronNS]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. There’s a lot of information which I am sure will help me to understand what I am going through. Thank you. Phillip.

[HeronNS in reply to Hindess]

Let us know how you get on.

[Hindess in reply to HeronNS]

I will do. It seems to take a long time to get results, I will just have to wait and see!